Why director Shankar’s legacy goes beyond mere grandeur 

2021 marked the 25th year of Indian — Kamal Haasan and director Shankar’s first collaboration — about which V.T. Vijayan, one of the editors of the cult classic, once shared an interesting anecdote. In the now iconic ‘Telephone Manipol’ song, Shankar wanted Manisha Koirala and Kamal’s faces to be transposed on the dancing penguins, but they could not pull it off due to time constraints. Shankar, who seemed to be aware of the challenges that came with VFX back in the late 90s — given that the film depended on a lot of visual effects to pull off the two characters played by Kamal — had also shot scenes of the lead characters playing with penguins which ended up in the film. Three years later, Shankar’s imagination took shape in Mudhalvan’s ‘Mudhalvanae’ song in which the film’s secondary characters appear as snakes.

Vadivelu and Manivannan’s images juxtaposed over snakes in a still from ‘Mudhalvan’
| Photo Credit:
@Ayngaraninternational/YouTube

Pushing boundaries

Past the brahmandam (grandeur) his films have become synonymous with, there’s more to Shankar’s films than lavish sets, exotic locations and idealist tropes. With a career spanning more than 30 years, after assisting filmmakers like Pavithran and SA Chandrasekhar (whose son Vijay would become his lead star in Nanban), Shankar made his directorial debut with Gentleman in 1993. Though Gentleman is not a film one would often associate with the magnificence Shankar later became known for, even in his debut flick, the young filmmaker wanted to push the boundaries of filmmaking and incorporate technology. The iconic A.R. Rahman song ‘Chikku Bukku Rayile’ was initially supposed to be a bus song, but ended up being a train song; what often goes unnoticed is how difficult it would have been to shoot in an actual moving train at night. And who can forget the animated tears and arrows from the song?   

Shankar’s first tryst with animation in his debut film ‘Gentleman’
| Photo Credit:
@apitamilsongs/YouTube

If Shankar’s technical prowess and command over technology rose in Gentleman, it began taking baby steps in his sophomore Kadhalan. Prabhu Deva shooting arrows in ‘Chikku Bukku Rayile’ was a precursor for what we had in store with ‘Mukkala Mukkabla’, in which he turns into an ‘invisible man’ and in ‘Ennavale Adi Ennavale’ where his 2-dimensional ‘soul’ picks up his lady love’s equivalent and the two fly from an auditorium in Chennai to the hills of Kulu Manali! The grandeur, like the glass framed bus for ‘Urvasi Urvasi’, spilt over to the film as well with Mysore’s famous Lalitha Mahal being shown as the female lead’s house. Also, Kadhalan was the last film to be given access to shoot inside the Chidambaram Nataraja Temple.

A still from ‘Mukkala Mukkabla’

But it was with his third film Indian that Shankar’s imagination and quest for resplendence really took wings. The biggest film of his career at that moment with one of the biggest stars of the Indian film industry, Shankar not only upped the ante with songs (‘Akadanu Naanga’ and ‘Maya Machindra’) but also with the feature film itself. Graphic designer Venky, who worked on the film, called it the most challenging film he had worked on, especially with portions featuring Kamal’s character with Subhas Chandra Bose’s stock footage. Starring Kamal in dual roles, the film had several scenes featuring both characters on screen — and at times even overlapping each other — and complex editing patterns like composing multiple layers were employed. Hollywood make-up artists Michael Westmore and Michael Jones were brought in to design the now-famous “Indian thatha” look. Interestingly, Kamal learnt about prosthetic makeup when he previously assisted Westmore in Hollywood films like Rambo III and Star Trek: First Contact. The retired Oscar-winning artist is apparently supervising the upcoming Indian 2 as well.

Kamal Haasan’s image on stock footage featuring Subhas Chandra Bose in a still from ‘Indian’
| Photo Credit:
@GrandMasterMoviesOfficial/YouTube

Going over and above

In his next four films — Jeans, Mudhalvan, its Hindi remake Nayak, and Boys — Shankar continued with his share of slice-of-life movies and films on co-occurring social issues with vigilante themes. Unsurprisingly, his use of VFX and shooting at exotic locales took a new leap. The ‘Poovukkul’ song in Jeans showed us several wonders of the world, while ‘Kannodu Kaanbadhellam’ featured two Aishwarya Rais simultaneously dancing on screen with visual effects. A personal favourite trivia is how the dinosaur that magically appears to wish the lead couple in the last scene, is a reused clip from Jurassic Park’s iconic shot!

Still from ‘Jeans’ and ‘Jurassic Park’
| Photo Credit:
@shemaroo/YouTube and Special Arrangement

In Mudhalvan, Shankar kept the visual effects magic to the songs and opted for realism; however, its cinematographer (and late director) KV Anand called the Anna Salai riot sequence one of the most challenging shots of his career. Even a coming-of-age film like Boys had a song, ‘Ale Ale’ which featured the time freeze technology, made famous by films like The Matrix, that was achieved by linking 62 cameras to create one seamless shot.

The filmmaker would go on to push the boundaries of the time freeze technology for an action sequence in Anniyan. If that did not make the shot challenging enough, it also had 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. Another interesting trivia is how he recreated the Thiruvaiyaru Thyagaraja Utsavam, complete with violin maestro Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and leading Carnatic vocalists like Sudha Ragunathan, Sirkazhi G. Sivachidambaram, O.S. Arun and P. Unni Krishnan. Anniyan was also the first Tamil film to have a dedicated website (anniyan.com), from which posters and other downloadable content were made available.

A still from the bullet time shot from ‘Anniyan’
| Photo Credit:
@PenMovies/YouTube

As for the songs, ‘Kumari’ was shot at a large tulip garden in Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam, while ‘Kannum Kannum Nokia’ was shot at the Nokia Headquarters in Espoo, Finland, Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Petronas Towers. Many of Shankar’s films also have memorable folk songs (‘Usalampatti Penkutti’ in Gentleman, ‘Erani Kuradhani’ in Kadhalan and ‘Uppu Karuvadu’ in Mudhalvan) with the sets of the numbers being exponentially extensive. Despite having similar songs in his future projects — like ‘Balleilakka’ from Sivaji: The Boss and ‘Asku Laska’ from Nanban – he hit the crescendo with Anniyan’s ‘Andangkaka’. The song featured 350 painted houses shot in a village near Sengottai along with houses, roads, rocks and even a bridge.

Sivaji: The Boss, Shankar’s first collaboration with Rajinikanth, became the first Tamil film to enter the 100-crore box office collection club. Technically, Sivaji was the first Indian film to use Dolby Atmos surround sound technology; similarly, KV Anand used balloon lights brought from the French company Airstar Space Lighting to shoot an action sequence in an open-air theatre at night. But once again, it was the songs where the visionary in Shankar sparkled the most. For ‘Vaaji Vaaji’, art director Thota Tharani made a Babylonian palace, and for ‘Sahana’, he created a glass house. Keeping with shooting at exotic locations abroad for songs, the ‘Style’ song was shot at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. However, the location was not the highlight because Shankar had another trick up his sleeve. The song featured a fair-skinned version of Rajinikanth, which was achieved with CGI. Every single movement of Rajinikanth had to be shot again with a British woman and her skin colour was digitally implemented onto that of Rajinikanth’s.

Making of ‘Style’ song from ‘Sivaji’

What started in the early 2000s as Robot, a techno-thriller set in a future Chennai starring Kamal and Preity Zinta, turned into Enthiran in 2010 with Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai. Shankar, who loved toying with technology, aided by the film’s genre, went to town to create a benchmark for Indian sci-fi films. 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. Previsualisation technique was used in 40 out of the 60 visual effects scenes and it consisted of 2,000 takes with the pre-production work alone taking one and a half years. For creating robots with Rajini’s appearance, Doom Light Stage systems were used to scan his face in 3D digital format. A mannequin made by a Legacy Effects team of 100 technicians in Los Angeles was used as Chitti the robot, and six puppeteers were brought in to control its movements. Once again, for the songs, it was the ruins of the Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru for ‘Kilimanjaro’ and Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil for ‘Kadhal Anukkal’.

After a tryst with a remake in the form of Nanban, Shankar returned to making a big-screen extravaganza with I starring Vikram. This time, he worked with the New Zealand-based special effects studio Wētā Workshop and even met director Peter Jackson. Hong Kong martial arts choreographer and director of classics like Drunken Master starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Woo-ping, was brought in as a stunt co-ordinator. This time, Shankar chose Red Seabeach in Panjin and Li River in Guilin, China to shoot the ‘Pookkalae’ song. For a film about a bodybuilder, the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger was invited for the film’s audio launch.

Chennai, 15/09/2014: (from left to right) Rajinikanth, Shankar, Arnold Schwarzenegger and A.R.Rahman during the audio release of the film ‘Í’ held in Chennai
| Photo Credit:
S R Raghunathan

Shankar then opted for sci-fi once again and did his first standalone sequel,2.0,reuniting with Rajinikanth. The filmmaker teamed up with Legacy Effects and 2.0 became the first Indian film to be natively shot in 3D. Crazy Rich Asians and Batman Returns costume designer Mary E. Vogt, stunt choreographer Kenny Bates and visual effects specialists John Hughes and Walt Jones of Tau Films were also brought in. The film reportedly had 1,000 visual effects shots making it the most expensive Indian film during its release.

Six years later, Shankar is back with Indian 2 which reunites him with Kamal Haasan. While production information regarding the film is kept under wraps, an intro video gives a glimpse of what could be in store, and it’s got everything from grand visuals and large sets filled with hundreds of extras to exotic locales and a barrage of visual and CGI effects.

Real life inspirations

Past the grandeur and impeccable visual imagery, Shankar’s films have majorly stuck to contemporary issues with real-life incidents adding inspirations to his tropes. If it was the cold war between the then-Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and Marri Chenna Reddy in Kadhalan, the botched brain surgery in Jeans is said to be inspired by a true incident involving late-actor Sridevi’s mother. Mudhalvan’s idea was inspired by the Nixon-Frost interviews as well as actor Sivaji Ganesan being named the honorary mayor of Niagara Falls, New York for one day. His Enthiran’s Chitti is often compared with the titular character of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein while I had similarities to The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast.

The filmmaker also worked extensively with writers like Balakumaran, Sujatha, Subha, B Jeyamohan, Lakshmi Saravanakumar, Kabilan Vairamuthu and Madhan Karky, and his upcoming film Game Changer is written by director Karthik Subbaraj. We also have to mention the brilliant titles Shankar has served as producer on, such as Imsai Arasan 23aam Pulikesi, Veyil, Kalloori and Eeram.

It’s been 31 years since Shankar made his debut and each one of his films stands as a testimony to his impeccable and audacious vision that’s meticulously brought alive on screen. Some of his films might have not aged well — predominantly because of their underlying themes and authoritarian tone — but that does not take away the impact of his attention towards making a film which has inspired a whole new generation of filmmakers to dream big.