S. Shankar
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Shankar Shanmugam (born 17 August 1963) is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter, primarily known for his work in Tamil cinema. He is one of the most prominent and highest paid 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). 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.