SHANKAR NAG, by hearing this name a procession of memories will run through the minds of people who watch kannada films. By the way today is bitrhday of SHANKAR, to commemorate this day i am writing this blog. As you all know about him, i will write the things which are less know to many and this blog is to salute his workohalism.
An hero in the films of today can act in maximum of 4-5 films per year and 2-4 will release per year. But shankar acted in 14 films in a year and all those 14 films got released, i think he is the only person in the world who had done this. He used to sleep only 3 hours a day.Now we are seeing metro train in bangalore but shankar had idea about implementing metro before 25 years, along with he had made proposal to goverment to install ropeway to nandihills.
To break the monotony he started writing script for the teleserial MALGUDI DAYS, which was based on R.K.Narayan's bestseller MALGUDI DAYS, which recieved accolades through out the country. In between his busy schedule he didnt have time to do this, so he wrote the whole script in the nights. His workohailsm stupefys everyone. Malgudi days created a sensation throughout the world, and shankar got invitation from allmost 40 countries to exhibit his show on malgudi days there. One more thing shankar nag as a student , he got offers to do postgraduation from many prestigious institutions through out the world as he had a dream to do his masters degree abroad, at this point of time he got an offer from Mr.Girsih karnad to play a protaganist role in "ondanodu kaladalli", which won national awards for both shankar and karnad. After the release of the shankar rejected all the offers from prestigious institutions and chose film and dramas as his field and excelled in that.
To his credit he have the record of youngest director to direct legend onf indian cinemas Dr.RAJ (ondu mutthina kathe). He shooted a film "Minichina ota" within just 48 hours. It got recorded in to limca book of world records and after some years to beat his own record he shot another film "Iddhu Sadhya" in 24 hours.
Just imagine how workahollic he was.
"Om Shanthi Om" got accolades and huge revenue because of its starcast and mainly of its storylie. But shankar did film on this reincarnation topic before 20 years (Janma janmada anubanda,how crteative he was!!). Some his friends used to ask him "dont you need time rest?" shankar allways answered them with his unfading smlie "there will be a lot of time after my death, i will take rest only then". Even today many auto rickshaws across karnataka have his photo on them or his name on the back, because shankar acted as a prompt, honest autodriver in a film "Auto raja", his stickers are in huge demand till today. Many heroes acted as autodrivers and many films on autodrivers came and went none made a impact like this film.
"Nothing lasts forever, but somethings ends too early", this saying bacame true in shankar's life . He passed away in an accident, his demise created a vaccum in indain film industry which will never get filled. Kannada film industry will not be in this pathetic condition if he is alive today.
We all always confess that "we dont have time", there is a lesson to be learnt from shankar's life.
