Jaishankar

Jaishankar (12 July 1938 – 3 June 2000) was an actor in Tamil cinema. He was credited onscreen with title of Makkal Kalingnar Jaishankar in most of the film starring him and is sometimes referred to as the Thennagathu James Bond (South Indian James Bond) because of his roles in films such as Vallavan Oruvan and CID Shankar.

Biography

Jaishankar was called Subramaniam Shankar at birth, on 12 July 1938. His father was a magistrate, and Jaishankar was educated at PS High School and The New College, Chennai, where he was awarded an honours degree. He studied law but gave it up after a year because of his interests in the theater and other art forms.

He joined Cho's Viveka Fine Arts, which consisted mostly of Mylaporeans where he did insignificantly small roles. Obviously not happy he moved out and the break came with Koothabiran's Kalki Fine Arts where he made a mark playing a lead role in Kalki's 'Amara Thaara'.

Career

In an era dominated by Sivaji Ganesan, M. G. Ramachandran and Gemini Ganesan, he created his own niche with portrayals of Westernised characters. He was popularly known as South Indian James Bond because of his roles as the investigative detective in Vallavan Oruvan and CID Shankar, and "Friday star" because he invariably had a release every week, He was also adept at comedy and contemporary portrayals as seen in Pattanathil Bhootham, Noottrukku Nooru and Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum. With the emergence of Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan, he began to play villain and father roles in many films, among them Murattu Kaalai, Apoorva Sagodharargal and Thalapathi.