1990s

Shankar began his career as an actor in the films Vasantha Raagam in 1986 and Seetha. He later became an assistant to film directors like S. A. Chandrasekhar and Pavithran.^[7][9] His first break in Hindi films was as an assistant director to S. A. Chandrasekhar in Jai Shiv Shankar (1990) produced by Rajesh Khanna. His final movie with S. A. Chandrasekhar was Nanbargal.

In 1993, he made his directional debut through Gentleman. Starring Arjun Sarja in the lead role, the film was made with a higher budget in Tamil cinema during that time, won positive response and became a blockbuster.^[10] A. R. Rahman, the film's music composer continued to work with Shankar in his following 6 directorial ventures.

His second film Kadhalan, a romantic-action film was released in the following year, had Prabhu Deva in the lead role. In 1996, he collaborated with Kamal Haasan for Indian. It was dubbed in Hindi as Hindustani and Telugu as Bharateeyudu. The film was selected as the country's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Following Indian, Shankar began work on Jeans, which released in 1998 and became the most expensive film in Indian cinema at that time with a budget of ₹ 200 million. Upon release, it became one of the highest grossing Tamil films of the 1990s. He made his production debut through Mudhalvan (1999). Arjun Sarja joined the project as lead actor and the Movie was a Hit.

2000s

Shankar opted to remake Mudhalvan in Hindi as Nayak, thus making his Bollywood debut. Nayak, released in September 2001, was declared a "Flop" by Box Office India due to the poor marketing, its high budget and distribution price. It went on to gain a cult status despite not doing well at the box office.^[11][12][13] Shankar started to work on his next film which was supposed to be a science fiction film titled Robot that was slated to have Kamal Haasan in the lead, the project was stalled since Kamal Haasan was busy with other projects. Later, the project could not move forward due to budgeting problems.^[14]

His musical entertainer film Boys was released in 2003, which received mixed response from the critics and audience, prompting it to do only average business. However A. R. Rahman's soundtrack for the film became a major sensation. On the box-office front, the Telugu dubbed version of Boys was a big hit in Andhra Pradesh.^[15] His psychological thriller Anniyan, featuring Vikram in three distinct characters (Ambi, Remo & Anniyan) was released in 2005 with Harris Jayaraj as the composer for his film. Anniyan turned out to become the second highest grossing Tamil film of 2005. Shortly after the release of Anniyan, it was reported that Shankar had teamed up with Rajinikanth and AVM Productions for a film. He renewed his association with A. R. Rahman with the film. Sivaji was made at a budget of ₹ 600 million,^[3] the most expensive Indian film at that time. He was paid with a record salary of ₹100 million for the film. After two years of filming, the film released in 2007. Ultimately it became one of the highest grossing Tamil films of that time.^[4]

2010s - present

Following Sivaji, Shankar revisited the possibilities of opinion regarding the script of Robot, he later decided to make the project in Tamil with Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai. The film was produced by South Indian media proprietor, Kalanithi Maran, was renamed as Enthiran and was made on a budget of ₹1.32 billion, the most expensive Indian film. Some reports also make it one of the highest grossing Tamil films of the time.^[16][17] After initial reports indicating that Shankar's next film is entitled to be with Siddharth, Shankar started to work on Nanban, the Tamil remake of the 2009 Hindi film 3 Idiots starring Vijay, Jiiva and Srikanth. The film opened in January 2012. After Nanban, it was wrongly reported that Shankar's next film would be called Therdal.^[18] On 21 June 2012, Shankar announced his next film named I.^[19] A romantic thriller, Vikram essayed the roles of a bodybuilder, fashion model, and hunchback. It was his second collaboration with Shankar after Anniyan, while Amy Jackson was the female lead and his second collaboration with her, after Thaandavam. The film, made over a period of two and half years, released on 14 January 2015 to mixed reviews and earned almost ₹2 billion in 19 days.^[20] Then he started working on 2.0, a sequel to Enthiran, which released on 29 November 2018 and received mixed reviews. However, it went on to become the seventh highest-grossing Indian film worldwide.

As of 2023, Shankar is working on Indian 2, the sequel to Indian, reuniting with Kamal Haasan. It was produced by Lyca Productions, marking the production company's second collaboration with Shankar after 2.0. He also announced his debut in Telugu cinema, Game Changer, starring Ram Charan and Kiara Advani; with the story written by Karthik Subbaraj. It was produced by Dil Raju, under Sri Venkateswara Creations. Shankar stated that he will work on and direct both the films simultaneously.^[21][22][23] In April 2021, he also announced his debut in Hindi cinema with Ranveer Singh. It will be produced by Jayantilal Gada, under Pen Studios, and is the official adaptation of his own Anniyan.^[24][25]

As director, writer and producer

• All films in Tamil unless otherwise noted

As an actor

National Film Awards

Filmfare Awards South

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

Vijay Awards

Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards