Remembering “Thenakathu James Bond” Jaishankar on his 87th Birth Anniversary

Jaishankar was an under-appreciated and under-rated actor. At a time when the box-office was dominated by Sivaji Ganesan, M.G. Ramachandran and Gemini Ganesan, Jaishankar established his own fan-base and developed his own market by providing a positive return on investment for film producers.

His script selection was excellent, as he chose stories that were fresh and different – often choosing scripts that the box-office giants would have shunned. He was popularly known as the James Bond of Tamil cinema because of his strong portrayals in films like C.I.D. Shankar and Vallavan Oruvan.

Jaishankar was born as Shankar Subramaniyan Iyer on 12 July 1938. He began studies towards a law degree but rejected it to pursue a career in acting on the stage.

He was introduced to the big screen by director Joseph Thaliath JR, the director of the hit film Gnana Soundari, in the 1965 film Iravum Pagalum. The film released for Pongal in 1965 on the same day as MGR’s Enga Veettu Pillai and Sivaji Ganesan’s Pazhani, but still went on to become a box-office success, paving the way for future films for Jaishankar.

Jaishankar went on to play a wide variety of role in various hit films like Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum, CID Shankar, Nee, Yaar Nee, Naam Moovar and the fantasy comedy adventure Pattanathil Bhootham.

Thereafter., he continued to experiment with his roles and this included Tamil westerns like Ganga and Kalam Vellum, comedies like Vettukku Veedu, a comedy suspense like Nawab Narkali and K. Balachander’s riveting drama Nootrukku Nooru, winning him the 1971 Film Fans Association Best Actor Award.

After a lull in his career in the early 1980s, Jaishankar accepted the role of the antagonist in AVM Productions comeback film, Murattu Kaallai with Rajinikanth playing the lead. The success of this film then saw Jaishankar play a wide variety of character, villain and comedy roles or combining comedy and villainy in films like Kamalhaasan’s Yellaam Inba Mayam.

He worked with Rajinikanth in 15 films, with Sivaji Ganesan in 14 films and with Kamalhaasan in 10 films.

Jaishankar passed away on 03 June 2000 at the age of 61 after suffering a heart attack.

Jaishankar’s elder son, Sathya is an eye specialist and eye surgeon. His younger sister, Vijay is a TV actor, currently playing one of the leads in the popular TV serial, Bhaakiyalakshmi.