Mani Shankar

Mani Shankar is a Bollywood film director, holographic technology expert, writer and speaker.

Not to be confused with Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Mani Shankar
Born
Shankar Mani

(1957-08-03) 3 August 1957
Guntur, India
EducationHyderabad Public School
Alma materBITS, Pilani
OccupationFilm director, producer, writer, business magnate
Years active1980–present
ChildrenPrem Shankar

He best known for being the architect of the world’s first holographic political campaign that he designed for Narendra Modi during the 2012 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election. It set a Guinness World record.[1]

As a Bollywood Director he made 5 films including 16 December (film) – one of the highest-grossing films in the year of release; and Tango Charlie which was screened in several International Film Festivals and is a permanent part of the UN’s films on Anti-war.

Over his long career, Mani Shankar has worked on many films, advertisement as well as campaigns for political leaders.[2]

Early life

Mani Shankar graduated as a Chemical Engineer from BITS Pilani[3] in 1978. He worked for a few years as a research engineer in process engineering and drug delivery.

Career

With over two decades of rich experience in the film industry, made a shift into film production and started his own production house Bhairav Films, where he made over 1000 ad films, short films image building films and 5 Hindi feature films.

Most of his short films and feature films reflect a deep commitment to social causes and direct the audience towards soul searching and introspection. In 1991, his Telugu film, ‘Manishi’ won him the coveted Golden Nandi award for Best Film, as well as Nandi Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay writer.

His Hindi feature film 16 December, which was among the top ten grossing films of 2002, with the highest return on investment for any film that year.

Tango Charlie was a story about a soldier’s constant battle with his conscience. It was screened at several International film festivals and was included in Amnesty International’s list of classic Anti War films.

Rudraksh a futuristic supernatural film starring Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Suniel Shetty and Isha Kopikar.

Mukhbir (starring Om Puri, Suniel Shetty, Samir Dattani and Raima Sen) was the story of a young man rising above the dangerous underworld and choosing to die a patriot. This was also critically acclaimed and screened at the Black International festival in Berlin.

Knock Out (starring Sanjay Dutt, Irrfan Kkhan and Kangana Ranaut).

Filmography

Holography

Mani Shankar is noted in India for introducing Holograms in India. He spearheaded the first holographic campaign for Mr. Narendra Modi (the current PM of India) during the 2012 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election.[4]

He has since conducted election campaigns for various parties including the Telangana Rashtra Samithi during the 2014 Telangana Legislative Assembly election, which eventually led to their victory,[5] as well as the Nationalist Congress Party during the 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election which stemmed the decline of the party even though there was rampant anti-incubency that worked against it and its allies.[6]

Augmented Reality

In February 2017 Mani Shankar launched the first live augmented reality political campaign in the world for Shri Devendra Fadnavis, the honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra State, India. For the first time it enabled an electoral candidate to enter people’s homes and softly pitch for votes. The voters could also take selfies with the candidate, and indeed many did so and posted on social media.[7]

The campaign was declared a success. The effectivity of AR as a political campaign tool was established.[8]

A series of Life Size AR projects followed in fields ranging from Film publicity, Sports, spirituality and corporate launches. Spiritual Guru Swami Ganapathy Sachidananda, former Cricket Captain Kapil Dev, Movie Star Rana Dagubbati star of the blockbuster Bahubali are some of the top celebrities who have appeared as AR for various promotional and communication purposes.[9]

A R Rahman has announced on his official Facebook page that he got his Augmented Reality Channels done by Mani Shankar & Kaali Sudheer to give a chance to click pictures for his fans.[10]

References
  1. "Narendra Modi's 3D avatar enters Guinness World Records". NDTV. 15 March 2013.
  2. The Hindu (12 January 2013). "Naidu dons greasepaint". The Hindu. http://thehindu.com/. Retrieved 12 January 2013. External link in |publisher= (help)
  3. "Ace Film Maker Mani Shankar gives BITS Pilani OASIS a Scintillating Start". IndiaPrWire. 17 October 2006. Archived from the original on 27 March 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  4. New York Times (23 November 2012). "Meet 'Virtual Modi,' Gujarat Chief Minister's Latest Tech Push". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  5. Z News (30 April 2014). "Nobody has the kind of experience in holograms like I do: Mani Shankar". http://zeenews.india.com/. Retrieved 30 April 2014. External link in |publisher= (help)
  6. NCP. https://archive.is/20150210050220/http://ncp.org.in/mobile_feature/stories/formedia/2134. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. NCP (14 February 2017). "A new reality".
  8. NCP. "Maharashtra: BJP takes a digital leap to woo voters ahead of civic polls".
  9. NCP. "3D Augmented Reality for Rana Nene Raju Nene Mantri".
  10. "Augmented Reality Rahman". 29 January 2018.
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