'Shankar- The Magnum Opus Director's' Filmmaking In Indian Cinema: Know More Than What You See (Image-X/shankarshanmugh)
Shankar, the veteran director, became synonym for redefining the limits and boundaries of filmmaking in India. Known as an expensive director, he also has proven that there will be more in his film, than a lavish set and exotic location, which are capable of lifting Indian cinema by raising its standards. The visionary of Indian Cinema has transformed the cinematic world with 30 years of him introducing new ventures.
There is a lot to know about the Indian 2 creator, Shankar- The director.
Let it be anything in Indian filmmaking, introducing new technology, VFX, filmmaking techniques, creating invisible characters, shooting in exotic locations, upgrading graphic designing techniques, and what not. You name it, Shankar’s imagination has already made it to the screens throughout his 30 years of directorial expeditions.
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Started with his Gentleman in 1993, for which he received the Best Director Award from the Tamil Nadu government, the director extended his prowess with Mudhalvan in 1999, which was submitted by India for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. And with many more accolades, the director took Indian cinema to its greatest heights. And is it only this? No.
Creating the most expensive Tamil films over time, the lens of the director had shown the wonders of the world. With the ‘Poovukkul’ song featuring Prashanth and Aishwarya Rai, from Jeans, the director took the audience to the actual seven wonders of the world. It did not stop there, With the song Kannodu Kaanbadhellam, the director featured two Aishwarya Rais simultaneously on the screen, with his technology exploration, received several accolades as well.
Challenging his making journey, the director introduced the time-freeze technology with his Ale Ale song from Boys. Pushing the boundaries beyond, the director explored the technology with the action sequence in Anniyan which made it even more challenging enough, with 127 professionally trained fighters from Vietnam and involved extensive rope work. If the Boys’ bullet time shot had 62 cameras achieving a 180° rotation, in Anniyan, Shankar used 122 cameras for a 270° rotation which were rendered by the VFX studio Big Freeze in London. Notably, Shankar’s Anniyan was also the first film to have a dedicated website: anniyan.com, from which posters and other downloadable content were made available.
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And the list goes beyond, with Enthiran in 2010, the first Tamil film to join the 100-crore club in India, which also marked the collaboration of U.S.-based special effects studio Legacy Effects, the company behind practical effects for films like Avatar, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Life of Pi, and Pacific Rim, took Enthiran as their first international project.
The extravaganza of the director is about to be extended with the Indian 2 release on July 12, starring Kamal Haasan. The prequel Indian was released on 9 May 1996 worldwide and became the highest-grossing Tamil film upon its release. It was selected by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1996 but was not nominated. The film won three National Film Awards, including Best Actor (Haasan), two South Filmfare Awards, and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. Being the most expensive Indian film of the time with a budget of 15 crores, the movie shattered the box office, earning a 35 crore collection.
