S. Shankar

Shankar Shanmugam (born 17 August 1963), credited as S. Shankar or his mononym Shankar, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. He is one of the highest grossing film directors in Indian cinema. His films typically deal with the contemporary social issues, vigilante themes and the usage of state of the art technology and VFX. He has won one National Film Award, four Filmfare Award South and six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards in his career. Six of his films have won the National Film Award for Best Special Effects.

He 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. Two of his films Indian (1996) and Mudhalvan (1999), which deal with social and political issues, were commercially very successful and also 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.

His psychological thriller Anniyan, featuring Vikram in three distinct characters (Ambi, Remo and 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 a 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.

Early life
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 an 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, he wanted to be an actor, he chose to be a director instead and became one of the leading directors in Indian cinema.

1986-1990
Shankar began his career as an actor in the films Vasantha Raagam in 1986 and Seetha. He later became an assistant to film directors like S. A. Chandrasekhar and Pavithran. His first break in Hindi films was as an assistant director to S. A. Chandrasekhar in Jai Shiv Shankar (1990) produced by Rajesh Khanna.

1993-2002
In 1993, he 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.

His second film, Kadhalan, a romance-action film released the following year, had 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). Arjun Sarja joined the project as lead actor and the movie was a hit.

Shankar opted to remake Mudhalvan in Hindi as Nayak, thus making his Bollywood debut. Nayak, released in September 2001, was declared a "Flop" by Box Office India due to the poor marketing, its high budget and distribution price. It went on to gain a cult status 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.

2003-2009
His musical entertainer film Boys was released in 2003. It received mixed response from the critics and audience, resulting in average business. However, A. R. Rahman's soundtrack for the film became a major sensation. On the box-office front, the Telugu-dubbed version of Boys was a hit in Andhra Pradesh.

His psychological thriller Anniyan, featuring Vikram in three distinct characters (Ambi, Remo and Anniyan), was released in 2005. Shankar collaborated with composer Harris Jayaraj for the first time. Anniyan turned out to become the second-highest grossing Tamil film of 2005.

Shortly after the release of Anniyan, it was reported that Shankar had teamed up with Rajinikanth and AVM Productions for a film. He renewed his association with A. R. Rahman for the film. Sivaji was made at a budget of ₹ 600 million, the most expensive Indian film to that point. He was paid a record salary of ₹100 million for the film. After two years of filming, the film released in 2007. Ultimately it became one of the highest grossing Tamil films of that time.

2010-2018
Following Sivaji, Shankar revisited the possibilities of opinion regarding the script of Robot, he later decided to make the project in Tamil with Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai. The film was produced by South Indian media proprietor, Kalanithi Maran, was renamed Enthiran, and was made on a budget of ₹1.32 billion, which was again the most expensive Indian film to that point. Some reports also make it one of the highest grossing Tamil films of the time.

Shankar started to work on Nanban, the Tamil remake of the 2009 Hindi film 3 Idiots starring Vijay, Jiiva and Srikanth. The film opened in January 2012. After Nanban, it was wrongly reported that Shankar's next film would be called Therdal.

On 21 June 2012, Shankar announced his next film titledI. A romance-thriller, Vikram essayed the roles of a bodybuilder, fashion model, and hunchback. It was his second collaboration with Shankar after Anniyan. Amy Jackson was the female lead and it was Vikram's second collaboration with her, after Thaandavam. The film, made over a period of two and half years, released on 14 January 2015 to mixed reviews and earned almost ₹2 billion in 19 days.

Shankar then started working on 2.0, a sequel to Enthiran, which released on 29 November 2018 and received mixed reviews. However, it went on to become the seventh highest-grossing Indian film worldwide.

2019-present
Shankar then began work on Indian 2, the sequel to Indian, reuniting with Kamal Haasan. It was produced by Lyca Productions, marking the production company's second collaboration with Shankar after 2.0. However, due to Haasan contesting the 2019 Indian general election, an accident on the sets, and the COVID 19 pandemic, production was stalled.

In February 2021, Shankar announced his debut in Telugu cinema, Game Changer, starring Ram Charan and Kiara Advani; with the story written by Karthik Subbaraj. It was produced by Dil Raju, under Sri Venkateswara Creations.

In April 2021, he also announced his debut in Hindi cinema with Ranveer Singh, a remake of Anniyan. It was to be produced by Jayantilal Gada under Pen Studios. However, Shankar faced legal difficulties regarding rights to remake the film and the production never commenced.

Production on Game Changer began, and after Haasan became available following the release of Vikram, Shankar stated that he will work on and direct both Game Changer and Indian 2 simultaneously. Indian 2 is to release on 12th July 2024, and Game Changer is also expected to release in 2024. Haasan also announced that shooting for the third part of Indian is done and that post-production would commence after the production of Indian 2 finishes.

As director

 * All films in Tamil unless otherwise noted

As an actor
This is a list of films that S. Shankar acted for other directors.