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Shankar Panikkar, popularly known as Shankar is an Indian film actor and director. He was one of the prominent lead actors of Malayalam cinema during the 1980s. Galatta Cinema magazine described him as the True romantic hero of Mollywood in their special edition on 100 years of Indian cinema.

Shankar had a dream opening with the 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. Most 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.

His first commercial Malayalam directorial venture Keralotsavam 2009 starring Kalabhavan Mani and Vinu Mohan has been already released with positive reviews. Shankar\'s next Malayalam film, would probably star Mohan Lal.  Apart from Keralotsavam 2009, Shankar has also directed Virus, a film on AIDS, which was censored in 2007. Now he is directing Manal Nagaram, a tamil venture based at U.A.E.

Shankar moved to television media with a successful serial Ithu Manju Pole. He continued to perform in hit serials like Swararaagam and Parasparam. His last serial Ammakkayi aired in Surya TV was a success mainly due to his teaming with Menaka, his hit pair of 80\'s. The recent Malayalam films Shankar appeared was Ividam Swargamanu directed by Roshan Andrews, alongside Mohanlal, Rhythm, Koottukar. 

2012 had 6 releases of Shankar. They are Casanovva , Banking Hours 10 to 4, Hide N\' Seek and the critically acclaimed films Father\'s Day, Oomakkuyil Padumbol and Bhoomiyude Avakashikal. In 2013, he has been appreciated for his comic role in Anoop Menon scripted hit film Hotel California, directed by Aji John. His new films are Miss Lekha Tharoor Kaanunnathu and the delayed Cleopatra. He has also completed 80% shooting of his Tamil directorial venture Manal Nagaram based at U.A.E.. He is also playing the lead role along with Indrajith and Murali Gopy in Naku Penda Naku Taka shot at Kenya.

Shankar was instrumental in giving break to directors Priyadarshan and Bhadran in two super hit movies Poochakkoru Mookkuthi and Ente Mohangal Poovaninju respectively. Director Sibi Malayil changed to serious family films with Shankar\'s home production Chekkeranoru Chilla.

Born in 1960 to Thrissur Kacheriyil Thekkeveettil NP Panicker and Sulochana Panicker.  Shankar is living in Cochin with his mother Shankar is married to UK Based Dance Teacher Chitra Lakshmi