There is a director of Indian cinema who has done similar work for 30 years, from using VFX for the first time in India to prosthetics, changing the entire look of an actor, bringing art technology VFX to Tamil cinema, social issues like reservation, corruption, what is the responsibility of a CM. The work of a director like S Shankar was also appreciated by directors like Rajamouli. S. Shankar used visual effects to enhance the majesty of the film. This director shook the box office with his first film. But what happened to this director who rocked the box office with his first film? But today he is struggling to give a hit, forget about a blockbuster.
New directors like Lokesh Kanagaraj are giving superhits like Vikram with Kamal Hassan. while S Shankar is giving disasters like Indian 2 with Kamal Hassan. The condition of Game Changer is such that it has been removed from 7000 screens. Statistics are telling that the show Game Changer has received such a low response that its 7000 shows have been removed from the theatres. So today in Directors Evolution, we are going to talk about a director who was called the uncrowned king of Bollywood for a time. then we are going to tell you everything in detail not only about the downfall of S Shankar but also about how he will bounce back once again.
Table of Contents
Early Life
S Shankar was born on 177th August 1963 in Kumbakonam, a village in Tamil Nadu, like every middle-class boy of India, he also set out on the journey of engineering and took a diploma in mechanical engineering and After that, he started working as a quality control in a typewriting company. He works as a supervisor but he has always been passionate about films you will be surprised to know that he came to the film world to become an actor and not a director.
So he started his film journey from a theatre place and being a part of those theatre places was worth it for S Shankar because while working in those theatre places, he was noticed by a director named S Chandrashekhar He saw that dedication and that potential in S Shankar, which is why he brought S Shankar to the film industry but not as an actor, he brought S Shankar to the film industry as a screenwriter and S Shankar also works as an assistant director to S Chandrashekhar and learns the work there and during the same time he also plays some small roles as an actor in movies like Vasantha Rangam and Sita.
After spending some time in the industry, he understands that he wants to become a director and not an actor and finally, he decides to become a director. The newly-made director S Shankar had to face rejection many times for his first film, he gave multiple ideas to multiple producers. He said that he was rejected multiple times and even after being rejected so many times, somehow he convinced a producer named KT Kunjommal to produce a film but S Shankar’s struggle did not end there.
For his debut film Gentleman, he was almost replaced due to production delays. This film was to be given to some other director in his place but still later the producer showed trust in S Shankar and then S Shankar directed that film and when his film Gentleman was released, it proved to be a super hit. After that, by making strong movies like Kadhalan and Indian.
The VFX Pioneer of Indian Cinema
VFX which no one had done before in India like the technique of prosthetic makeup was used for the first time in India by S Shankar in his 1996 film Indian, just so Kamal Haasan as an old man, after this, the technique of time freeze was also used in S Shankar’s film Boys released in 2003 and all these things were happening for the first time in India, many people would think that VFX was used in India.
In Telugu cinema also Shyam Prasad Reddy used VFX for the first time in his film in 1995, but if anyone tried VFX for the first time in India on a big scale, then it was also S Shankar, in his film Robot we got to see world-class VFX at that time and the animatronics used in the film Robot were of the same calibre as those used in Terminator, Jurassic Park and Avatar and many technical works of the film Robot It was made in Stan Winston Studios which is in the US and this is the same studio which worked on movies like Aliens, Avatar and Terminator.
Now you can see the 90s as the rise of S Shankar when he established himself and the year 2000 can be seen as a time when S Shankar pushed his limits with each of his films and made powerful cinema like Nayak, Shivaji, The Boss and also made experimental cinema like Robot. The budget of Shankar’s movies was many times more than normal Indian movies. Still, those movies used to collect double their budget at the box office. His film Shivaji which was made on a budget of 50 crores did a business of 150 crores his film.
Robot which was made and prepared on a budget of 150 crores did a collection of 250 crores plus at the box office and both these movies were the most expensive films of their time. One of them was the movie which came in 2015, you must remember the level of prosthetics used in this film, which means even his family members were not able to recognize Vikram.
Although the domination of South Indian cinema started in 2015 after the release of Bahubali, 5 years before that in 2010 when the complete dominance of Bollywood was in the hands of stars like SRK, Salman and Aamir, at that time, S Shankar along with Rajinikanth gave the biggest hit of 2010 by beating the movies of SRK and Salman, so it would not be wrong to say that S Shankar was dominating Bollywood in that era and when the pan India term did not even exist, that time the success of Robot is said to be the peak time of S Shankar.
S. Shankar’s Decline: What Went Wrong?
The reason for Shankar’s downfall, what was that reason, we will talk about later on S Shankar whose movies have come to a standstill It used to be the most costly film, it used to cost double the amount of their budget and today is the time when his films are not able to collect even half of their budget, whether it is Indian 2 whose budget was 250 crores but the total box office collection of that film was barely 150 crores or his latest film Game Changer whose budget was 450 crores but if the lifetime box office of this film collects even half of its budget then it will be a big thing.
Many people must be thinking about how the movies of a legendary director like S Shankar suddenly started to flop, then this is not all of a sudden incident, his downfall started in 2012 itself when he made the film Nanban which is also a very good film and the film also proved to be a hit but still, people were disappointed because of that film because it was a remake of Bollywood’s masterpiece 3 Idiots when a big director like S Shankar does a remake then people were disappointed too, imagine if Rajamouli had made a remake after Bahubali. People were disappointed and the same thing happened with S Shankar as well.
Especially if we talk about the movie Robot 2, then that film was one of the most hyped films of the decade, Akshay Kumar and Due to the evolution of stars like Rajinikanth, the expectations from that film were at the level of Baahubali 2 and I had assumed that this film will surely break the record of Baahubali 2 but this film proved to be a mediocre flop and S Shankar shattered everyone’s expectations and many film critics.
So let’s talk a little about the real reason for Shankar’s downfall. One thing I noticed in S Shankar’s filmography is that whatever good movies S Shankar has made, his dialogue writer S Ranga Ranjan or Sujata is also considered responsible for their success. When Sujata’s great writing Shankar’s direction style and his grand vision combined, then a great cinema was made, but Robot was the last film on which Sujata worked, he could not work because he died due to organ failure and this is the reason that whatever movies he made after Robot, their story and writing department lack, the characters of his movies are not as impactful as they used to be earlier.
Here we can clearly say that S Shankar is missing his old writer, Sujata, I will give you another example Rajamouli, All the films of Mouli have been written by his father V Vijayendra Prasad. So, as much credit for Raja Mouli’s successful films should go to V Vijayendra Prasad as to Raja Mouli. But here I would suggest that Shankar’s downfall is subjective because of his lack of availability. But according to me, the reason for S Shankar’s downfall is his direction style which has become outdated with time. And many people might feel that he is dragging the corruption topic too much.
So, now people are not interested in that kind of story. It is not so. People are still interested in that story. But today the audience wants to see the same story in a different perspective and stylish way. Shankar’s style is still the same as that of 2000, because of which Game Changer feels outdated.
Here I would like to compare Shankar with his ex-assistant director Atlee Kumar because he also makes the same type of cinema as Shankar, but the difference is that Atlee has upgraded and stylized his direction style according to the times and has also made changes in his film making style from time to time according to the taste and preferences of the audience so that his movies do not seem outdated to the people but Shankar is still stuck in the era of 2000.
Now take the example of Indian 2, the screenplay of the film was rubbish and the emotional bond that the audience had with Kamal Hasan’s character Senapati was not portrayed properly. Even after cutting 20 minutes of footage, this film remained a meme material on social media and when S Shankar was asked about it, you can understand his words that he is not at all confident,
I have no idea about doing a sequel and all when we started but once we shot and went into detail, every scene took a very good shape, so in that way whatever I compress, know it once it came under three hours at the same time I can see there is a It is possible to make two parts without any compromise,
There is a whole mind in both the parts and this is not the case of only S Shankar, there are other directors too who have become outdated because of not being able to evolve themselves like Rohit Shetty, Prabhu Deva and many more and here I would like to add one more reason and that is his recent working style where he is working on three movies simultaneously, including Indian Two and Game Changer,
And maybe because of that, both Indian 2 and Game Changer have been fucked up, never before has S Shankar worked on so many projects simultaneously that is, he used to complete one project first and then start the next one, due to which his entire focus was on one film and that is why he was able to give his best. Now, a lot of people have already declared the end of Shankar’s career.
S Shankar Upcoming Projects
He is working on some such projects in the future that will make him comeback and will also change Indian cinema because even if we keep Indian 3 aside, then every upcoming project of his is going to be of Hollywood level and if those movies turn out well, then Shankar will also break the records of Pushpa 2 and Bahubali 2. In the movie business, people at 90 go through three phases, rise, peak and downfall, and after the downfall, people at 90 prefer to retire or become relevant.
but only people who are such who bounce back even after their downfall, the biggest example of this thing are Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan and we have to find out whether Will Shankar become irrelevant or will he make a comeback and we will get the answer to this question from his future project, so his next project is Indian 3, which is not going to be his comeback and I am damn sure that you will also not be that interested in this film, so why don’t I tell you directly about one of S Shankar’s writing projects which can make him make a comeback.
So the first project is Vel Pari which is going to be a historical period drama film which will be made in three parts and if the rumours are to be believed, then this film will also have big stars like Surya and Chin Vikram but the casting has not been made official yet and it is being told that this project is very special for S Shankar because it is also his dream project.
Vel Pari project is going to be based on the novel named Vel Pari, so I am quite excited about this project, after this, Shankar will also work on such a film that probably no one else can make in Indian cinema except S Shankar, so I am talking about a sci-fi film which That it will be like some Hollywood movie of 2012 and although there are no many updates in this movie, but if a sci-fi film is made in India, then it will be a very proud moment for Indian cinema fans
And if we talk about another project of Shankar, then it is a James Bond kind of a film which will be a big scale spy action film, Age of Now, confirmation has been given for only three-four projects of Shankar and you know what is the best thing about these projects, the subject of all these projects is completely unique from each other, for the last some time Shankar has been making only vigilante movies, due to which the saturation point regarding his movie is being seen in the audience.
But I think the project of his upcoming movies will be very fresh and will excite people and if this project is made well, but for now Shankar’s comeback is like a morning dream that we hope this dream will be fulfilled, but when it is fulfilled, no one knows, now watch S Shankar Whether he is able to make a comeback or not, but cinema fans like me will always remember him as a legendary director because I think he is one of the first directors who created mass cinema into meaningful mass cinema by making a film like Sivaji and made a powerful film like Nayak.
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