K Shankar has several successful films to his credit, such as Bhookailasa, Ore Vaazhi, Padha Kanikkai and others.
Actors Jai Ganesh, Jayalakshmi, Manorama and other actors played important roles in Varuvan Vadivelan directed by K Shankar.
Varuvan Vadivelan, directed by K Shankar, completed 45 years of release on 15 May. Released in 1978, it is remembered as one of the most successful films by the director. This Tamil mythological film revolves around the story of Uma who was a firm believer in Lord Murugan. She faces violence at the hands of her husband Bhaskar. Despite facing many difficulties in her personal life, Uma has kept her faith in Lord Murugan alive. How his life changes because of this belief is the main theme of Varuvan Vadivelan.
Actors Jai Ganesh, Jayalakshmi, Manorama and other actors played important roles in Varuvan Vadivelan. MS Viswanathan won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award in the Best Music Director category for this film. Followers remember director K Shankar for making a lot of devotional-oriented films similar to Varuvan Vadivelan.
Shankar joined the film industry as an editing assistant and gradually rose to become a director with his talent and hard work. According to reports, he had saved the negatives of the film Vedala Ulama being made at AVM studios. He took the negatives to Mayyappa Chettiar aka AV Meiyappan. Reportedly, after this incident, Mayyappa Chettiar decided to take K Shankar along with him to Chennai when AVM studios shifted there. This proved to be a turning point in his career and he was soon promoted to the position of editor.
K Shankar’s popularity gradually increased. He garnered a huge fan base both as a director and an editor. He has several successful films to his credit, such as Bhookailasa, Ore Vaazhi, Padha Kanikkai and others. He directed over 80 films in Sinhala, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada languages.
Aadimai Penn remains one of the filmmaker’s all-time favourites. It tells the story of how King Sengodan (SA Ashokan) kills Vengaiyan’s (MG Ramachandran) father and enslaves all his people. Vengiyan doesn’t care about his responsibilities, but Jeeva (J Jayalalithaa) helps him grow into an intelligent person. K Shankar won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award under the Best Film category. KV Mahadevan received the same award for Best Music Director category.
K Shankar died of a heart attack on 6 March 2006 at the age of 79 at his residence.