S. Shankar

Shankar Shanmugam (born 17 August 1963) is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter, primarily known for his work in Tamil cinema. Known as one of the most prominent directors in the history of Indian cinema, he has also worked in Hindi and Telugu films. Shankar's films are known for addressing contemporary social issues, vigilante themes, and incorporating state-of-the-art technology and visual effects (VFX) with magnificence. Throughout his career, he has won several awards, including one National Film Award, four Filmfare Award South, and six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. Additionally, six of his films have won the National Film Award for Best Special Effects.

Shankar made his debut as a director in the film Gentleman (1993), for which he won the Filmfare Best Director Award and the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Director. He usually collaborates with composer A. R. Rahman, both having done over 11 films together. Some of his films like Indian (1996) and Jeans (1998) were commercially very successful and were submitted by India for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but neither earned a nomination. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by M. G. R. University.

Shankar's psychological thriller Anniyan was released in 2005 with highly critical and commercial success. After Anniyan, Shankar teamed up with Rajinikanth on Sivaji (2007), the most expensive Indian film at that time. He again collaborated with Rajinikanth for the science fiction film Enthiran (2010), which again turned out to be highest grossing Tamil film at that time and also its sequel 2.0 (2018), is the seventh highest-grossing film in India and the tenth highest-grossing Indian film worldwide. It is also the highest-grossing Indian film of 2018.

Shankar was born on 17 August 1963 in Kumbakonam, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu to Muthulakshmi and Shanmugam. He completed his diploma in mechanical engineering from Central Polytechnic College and worked in a typewriting company before entering the film industry. He was roped into the film industry as a screenwriter by S. A. Chandrasekhar, who accidentally saw the drama stage shows made by Shankar and his team. Though Shankar wanted to be an actor, he chose to be a director instead.

Shankar was a wannabe actor who, after small and unnoticed roles in two films such Vesham (1985) and Poovum Puyalum (1986), eventually grabbed the opportunity to assist directors S. A. Chandrasekhar and Pavithran. He began his career as an actor in the films Vasantha Raagam (1986), Neethikku Thandanai (1987) and Seetha (1990).

In 1993, Shankar made his directional debut through Gentleman, starring Arjun Sarja in the lead role. The film was made with a higher-than-average budget in Tamil cinema during that time. It received a positive response and became a blockbuster. A. R. Rahman, the film's music composer, continued to work with Shankar in his next six directorial ventures.

Shankar's second film, Kaadhalan, a romantic thriller film, released the following year and featured Prabhu Deva in the lead role. In 1996, he collaborated with Kamal Haasan for Indian. It was dubbed in Hindi as Hindustani and Telugu as Bharateeyudu. The film was selected as the country's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Following Indian, Shankar began work on Jeans, which released in 1998 and became the most expensive film in Indian cinema at that time with a budget of ₹ 200 million. Upon release, it became one of the highest grossing Tamil films of the 1990s. He made his production debut through Mudhalvan (1999), where he collaborated with Arjun Sarja for the second time as lead actor. The film was a hit at the box office.

Shankar opted to remake Mudhalvan in Hindi as Nayak, thus making his Bollywood debut. Nayak released in September 2001 and was declared a flop by Box Office India due to its poor marketing, high budget, and distribution price. It went on to gain cult status from repeated telecasts despite not doing well at the box office. Shankar started work on his next film, which was supposed to be a science fiction film titled Robot that was slated to have Kamal Haasan in the lead. The project was stalled since Haasan was busy with other projects. Later, the project could not move forward due to budgeting problems.