Kannan Shankar (17 March 1926 - 5 March 2006) was an Indian film editor, screenwriter and director. He directed more than 80 films in South Indian languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada as well as in Hindi. Film career Shankar started his film career as an editor Assistant at Central Studios, Coimbatore in 1939 and later moved to Pakshiraja Studios. He later became a successful editor at AVM Studios, before moving into film direction. He gave blockbuster film Alaya mani (1962) for Sivaji Ganesan highest grosser of that year.He went on to direct 7 Sivaji Ganesan films .He gave superhits like Rajkumar(1964) and Sachaai(1969) with Shammi kapoor and Sadhana in lead roles. Next to P. Neelakantan, Shankar was also credited with creating M. G. Ramachandran's (MGR) movie persona, in 8 movies he had directed MGR. MGR chose Shankar to direct his own production, "Adimai Penn". Partial filmography Death Shankar died due to heart attack at his residence on 5 March 2006 at the age of 79. References External links 1926 births 2006 deaths Tamil film editors Malayalam screenwriters 20th-century Indian film directors Tamil film directors Kannada film directors Telugu film directors Malayalam film directors Screenwriters from Kerala Telugu film editors Malayalam film editors Film directors from Kerala Film editors from Kerala 20th-century Indian screenwriters