S .

SHANKAR
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 before entering the film industry.[1]
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.[5] He is presently sponsoring for the MBA qualification of his protege Archish
Kalyanaraman, who he calls his most favorite assistant and the one who made the award-winning Short Film, "Eppo
Varuvaro" which was specially screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2015 . Archish is said to take over the legacy of
Shankar upon the latter's retirement from Cinema.

Career :1990s
Shankar began his career as an assistant to film directors like S. A. Chandrasekhar and Pavithran.[1][5] His first break in
Hindi films was as an assistant director to S. A. Chandrasekhar in Jai Shiv Shankar (1990) produced by Rajesh Khanna. His
final movie with S. A. Chandrasekhar was Nanbargal.

In 1993, he made his directional debut through Gentleman. Starring Arjun Sarja in the lead role, the film was made with a
higher budget in Tamil cinema during that time, won positive response and became a blockbuster.[6] A. R. Rahman, the
film's music composer continued to work with Shankar in his following 6 directorial ventures.

His second film Kadhalan, a romantic-action film was released in 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.
2000s
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.[7][8][9] Shankar started to 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 Kamal Haasan was busy with other projects. Later, the project could not move forward due to budgeting problems.[10]

His musical entertainer film Boys was released in 2003, which received mixed response from the critics and audience,
prompting it to do only average business. His psychological thriller Anniyan, featuring Vikram in three distinct characters
(Ambi, Remo & Anniyan) was released in 2005 with Harris Jayaraj as the composer for his film. 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 with the
film. Sivaji was made at a budget of ₹ 600 million,[11] the most expensive Indian film at that time. He was paid with a record
salary of ₹100 million for the film. After two years of filming, the film released in 2007. Ultimately it went on to become one
of the highest grossing Tamil films of that time.[12]

2010s
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 as Enthiran and was made on a budget of ₹1.32 billion, the most expensive Indian film. Some reports
also make it one of the highest grossing Tamil films of the time.[13][14] After initial reports indicating that Shankar's next film
is entitled to be with Siddharth, Shankar started to work on Nanban, the Tamil remake of the 2009 Hindi film 3 Idiots starring
Vijay, Jeeva and Srikanth. The film opened in January 2012. After Nanban, it was wrongly reported that Shankar's next film
would be called Therdal.[15] On 21 June 2012, Shankar announced his next film named I.[16] A romantic ting revenge upon
the people who turned him into a hunchback. Vikram played the lead role, collaborating with Shankar again after Anniyan
(2005), while Amy Jackson was the female lead. The film, made over a period of two and half years, released on 14 January
2015 to positive reviews earned almost ₹2 billion in 19 days.[17] Then he started working on 2.0, a sequel to Enthiran which
is released on 29 November 2018 and received mixed reviews leaving many fans disappointed after the long wait. He is
currently working on the pre-production of Indian 2, a sequel to Indian with Kamal Haasan.
జెంటిల్ మన్ (1993) 155 min |  Action, Drama, Thriller

Due to a past tragedy , a small business owner by day becomes modern

Gentleman

Poster

Directed by Shankar

Produced by K. T. Kunjumon

Written by Balakumaran (Dialogue)

Screenplay by Shankar

Story by Shankar

Starring Arjun

Madhoo

Goundamani

Senthil

Charan Raj

Subhashri

Vineeth

Music by A. R. Rahman

Cinematography Jeeva
 Edited by B. Lenin

V. T. Vijayan

Production A. R. S. Film International

Distributed by A. R. S. Film International

Release date 30 July 1993

Running time 160 mins

Country India

Language Tamil

Budget ₹1 crore (equivalent to ₹5.4 crore or

US$780,000 in 2018)

Box office ₹12 crore (equivalent to ₹65 crore or

US$9.4 million in 2018)

STORY :
In Ooty, Krishnamoorthy alias Kicha (Arjun) and Mani (Goundamani) perform a swashbuckling heist of money
of several crores while being in disguise diverting the attention of police, and escape in Nilgiri Mountain
Railway, much to the frustration of a chasing police officer named Ratnam (Ajay Rathnam).

Kicha is a respected citizen who runs a home-based pappadam business along with Mani in Chennai.
Susheela (Madhoo), one of Kicha's many female employees, has a crush on him and is constantly demanding
his attention. Another thing adding to her woes is the arrival of her jovial cousin Sugandhi (Subhashri). She
makes the place so lively and playful with silly fights between Mani and Babloo (Senthil). Sugandhi later
develops a crush on Kicha, especially after being saved by him from some molesting goons. Kicha reveals to
her that he has no such feelings for her and wants her to find a suitable mate. Before leaving Chennai,
Sugandhi steals Kicha's ring as a souvenir.

After several unsuccessful attempts at nabbing the thief, a disgraced Azhagar Nambi (Charan Raj) shaves his
head and is left with a ring mark on his face, after a scuffle with the thief. On investigating, he later realizes
that the mark was formed by a ceremonial ring worn by Brahmin priests, but to his vain, finds that the specific
design of this ring is uncommon to Brahmin priests, but rather resembles a mangalsutra. Nambi is forced by
his parents into getting married and by coincidence to Sugandhi, from whom he gets the particular ring that he
was tracking and finds out that it belongs to Kicha. In an attempt to trap and arrest Kicha, Nambi plots an
attempt at Kicha's house where they were invited for a wedding dinner, hosted by Kicha, where he shoots
Kicha, but the latter narrowly escapes with a bullet injury in his hand, along with Mani. Susheela follows them
to their hideout, where Susheela finds the duo and accuses Kicha for his deed.

After Susheela threatens to commit suicide, Kicha reveals his flashback about his student life as a district
level topper along with his best friend Ramesh (Vineeth), and when they both were denied their desired
medical college seats due to bribery, that leads to the tragic suicides of Kicha's mother Ponnamal
(Manorama) and Ramesh. Since then, Kicha became a thief to build a college of his own, where he desires to
make education available to the deserved without any difference to poor, rich, or any caste.

In order to fund the final stages of the college building, aware of the police trap, Kicha makes one last attempt
to steal money from the Chief Minister (Rajan P. Dev), resulting in success, but Nambi gains the upper hand
in arresting him. In the courtroom, Kicha demands that the State CM should come to the courtroom, who was
the then educational minister who demanded the bribe from him. Though the CM is exposed to the public, he
is still let off, which infuriates a youth who was inspired by Kicha's ideologies. The youth kills the minister by
planting a bomb on himself.

During the end credits, it is shown that Kicha serves his jail sentence and subsequently inaugurates the
medical college for the poor students after his release.
PREMIKUDU 
(1994 )168 min |  Action, Drama, Romance

Kadhalan

Theatrical release poster

Directed by S. Shankar

Produced by K. T. Kunjumon

Written by S. Shankar
 Starring Prabhu Deva

Nagma

Music by A. R. Rahman

Cinematography Jeeva

Edited by B. Lenin

V. T. Vijayan

Production A. R. S. Film International

Prabhu is the student chairman of the Government Arts College, Madras and his best friend Vasanth is the
joint secretary. He goes to invite governor Karkala Sathyanarayana as the chief guest for the college annual
day along with Vasanth, during which he sees his daughter Shruti and instantly falls in love with her. Karkala
accepts the invitation and on the function day he arrives with his wife and Shruti; Prabhu is excited to see her
again.

To get close to Shruti, Prabhu joins her dance school. Shruti initially hates him for disrespecting classical
dance. Prabhu's father, police constable Kathiresan, advises him to impress her by learning classical dance
properly and Prabhu assents. Unknown to anyone, Karkala intends to topple the state government by planting
bombs in the state; a recent bomb blast at a wholesale market inaugurated by Karkala was actually
orchestrated by him.

Shruti refuses to go to the Natyanjali festival at Chidambaram if Prabhu attends, for fear of him insulting the
art. To disprove her, Prabhu secretly enters her house and demonstrates his dance skills to her. She is
amazed and agree to go but, due to fear of terrorism, Karkala refuses to let her leave. She escapes with
Prabhu and Vasanth via motorbike, outwitting her bodyguards.

Meanwhile, Karkala and bomb specialist Mallikarjuna "Malli" plan the next bomb blast at the Nataraja
Temple where Natyanjali is to take place. Commander Ajay informs Karkala that Shruti left with two men to
attend Natyanjali. Karkala orders Malli to remove the bomb. Prabhu and Shruti are chased by the police and
Malli; that night they stay in a paddy field. Shruti realises Prabhu's love for her and reciprocates. They reach
Chidambaram as planned. Due to Malli's inability to remove the bomb, Karkala sends Ajay and a police squad
to the temple. Ajay and the police reach the temple, remove the bomb and bring Shruti back.

Karkala doubts Shruti's virginity as she was with Prabhu for a night. Upset at this, Shruti meets with Prabhu
and asks him to marry her, but then Ajay and his commandos imprison Prabhu and accuse him of planting the
bomb. The police order Prabhu to confess, but he refuses while Shruti becomes embittered over his
imprisonment, and expresses her love for him to her parents. Vasanth informs all the students about the
happenings and a strike is called by all the students against Karkala. Prabhu's release is ordered by Karkala
after Shruti's requesting.

Shruti is sent to her paternal grandparents' house in Andhra Pradesh. Prabhu and Vasanth reach the village
and find her. Shruti's grandparents support their romance and unite them. Malli sees Prabhu and informs
Karkala over a wireless transmission which Prabhu overhears. He discovers evidence of Karkala's attempts to
blast Nataraja Temple, and learns of his plans of blasting the Government General Hospital. After subduing
Malli, Prabhu and Vasanth escape with the evidence.

Malli informs Karkala, who orders the police to find Prabhu. Police arrest Prabhu and Vasanth, and Karkala
tells Malli to make the bomb detonate after his visit to the hospital to see the Vice President undergoing
treatment there. They plan to dump Prabhu and Vasanth in the hospital. However, Prabhu and Vasanth
escape, and Prabhu informs Kathiresan about the bomb. Malli plants the bomb, but Karkala betrays him by
trying to kill him with a bomb radio. Malli survives, and in revenge re-times the bomb to detonate during
Karkala's scheduled visit.

Prabhu searches for the bomb, while Vasanth brings students to vacate the patients. After meeting the Vice
President, Karkala gets stuck in a lift with his wife and daughter. Shruti is helped out, while Prabhu, having
located the bomb, runs to a river and throws it there; the bomb detonates without killing anyone. Malli
manages to kill Karkala with a live wire, but himself dies. Prabhu and Shruti reunite.