Seasoned Kollywood director S Shankar is making his debut in Telugu with ‘Game Changer’ after rocking Tamil film industry with a slew of blockbusters like ‘Gentleman’, 'Indian’, ‘Anniyan’, ‘Sivaji’ and ‘Robo” to become the numero uno director in Kollywood. “Shankar has a rare distinction among Tamil directors. Because most of his films like ‘Gentleman’, ‘Indian’ and ‘Aparachithudu’ minted gold at the Telugu box office. Even his films like ‘Jeans’ and ‘Boys’ did roaring business in Telugu states than in Tamil Nadu. Invariably, he gained Telugu fan following in big numbers for his star-centric entertainers loaded with rich songs and action sequences to enthrall masses,” says a distributor, who claims that Shankar wanted to do debut in Telugu industry with a megastar Chiranjeevi few years ago but it didn’t fall in place.
He claims that even Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu also showed interest to work with director Shankar in the Tamil remake of Bollywood blockbuster ‘3 Idiots’. ‘Mahesh Babu preferred Prakash Raj to reprise the role of Bomman Irani in the film, but Shankar insisted on roping in Satyaraj. As the film was shaping into a regular Tamil film rather than a multi-lingual film, Mahesh Babu declined the offer,” he adds.
Right now, Shankar has arrived in Tollywood with ‘Game Changer’ after enthralling Telugu movie buffs with his dubbed fare. However, frequent disruptions in shooting schedules, postponements and injuries to actor like Ram Charan has diluted the excitement of megafans who wanted the film to be wrapped up faster since it has been two years since ‘RRR’ hit the screens. “We have to see whether Shankar will adopt serious Tamil film narrative or will he change his style to cater to Telugu film audience since sensibilities of Tamil and Telugu audience is bit different. Surely, a tight rope walk for most successful director Shankar, he concludes.
