Shankar Panikkar
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Shankar is considered as one of the superstars of Malayalam cinema in 1980s.Actor Shankar had a dream opening with the Vijaya T. Rajendar 's Tamil Mega Hit " Oru Thalai Ragam " which completed 365 days in theatres. Luck favoured him in Malayalam Films too with Fazil 's directorial venture Manjil Virinja Pookkal, where Mohanlal debuted as villain became a Musical Hit. Overnight Shankar became a hot property in both Tamil and Malayalam film Industry and almost all his films doing good business. He was the Second Super Star of Malayalam Films of 80s after Late Action Star "Jayan". He never experimented with his roles, still he had a very large fan base in Kerala. Many of his ordinary films were hits just because of his presence. His teaming with Mohan Lal is very popular with many Hits. Shankar's pairing with actresses Menaka and Ambika were considered as safe bets. During late 80's, he cut down his film assignments and shifted to USA for personal and business reasons. However, most of his come back ventures failed to ignite the Box office.
In 2009 Shankar made a comeback to malayalam cinema as a director through
'Keralotsavam 2009'
