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Once a doyen of Tamil cinema, known for addressing contemporary societal issues and integrating cutting-edge technology and visual effects (VFX) into his films, filmmaker S Shankar has not been in top form lately. The underwhelming performance of his latest, the Ram Charan-starrer Game Changer, has only rubbed salt into the wound caused by the critical and commercial failure of his vigilante action film Indian 2 (2024), featuring Kamal Haasan reprising his iconic role from the 1996 film Indian.
While Indian 2 marked Shankar’s comeback after a six-year hiatus, in 2025, Shankar has two films releasing: Game Changer and Indian 3. Interestingly, this marks the first time in his career that two of his films will be released in the same year, whereas he traditionally maintains at least a year-long gap between projects. Although Shankar has always aimed to ensure that the production of one film doesn’t overlap with the next, he was unable to avoid this with the Indian films and Game Changer. Delays in the Indian movies — due to an accident on set and the pandemic — forced Shankar to push ahead with Game Changer, leading to an overlap in their productions, which resulted in their releases happening closely together.
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Recently, Shankar discussed the delays, claiming that the gap in his career was not entirely his fault. “My decision has always been to take up a new project only after completing the current one. But it didn’t have to take so long. The maximum time I take to complete a movie is one and a half years. If it goes beyond that, it’s because of external factors, including dates of actors and cancellations due to various reasons. When a shoot gets cancelled, it’s not easy to bring all the artistes back. Also, when they return, their hair or beard continuity might be compromised. By the time all these issues are sorted out, the rainy season might start,” he shared in a conversation with Behindwoods TV.
“At the planning stage itself, I divide things according to the sequences I can shoot during the summer and rainy seasons. For example, if we are shooting in Amritsar, I will enquire about the weather there in advance. If it’s too sunny, it would be difficult for the artistes. When you’re working on so many permutations and combinations, if something goes wrong, it’s very difficult to restore things to their original state,” Shankar, who made his debut in 1993 with Gentleman, added.
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Since his sophomore film Kadhalan (1994), Shankar has consistently ensured that his films were released in alternate years up until Sivaji: The Boss (2007), with the only exception being consecutive releases in 1998 and 1999 with Jeans and Mudhalvan. After Sivaji, it took him three years to release Enthiran (2010). Following his next Nanban (2012), Shankar again took three-year gaps for his subsequent films I (2015) and 2.0 (2018).
Made on a reported budget of Rs 250 crore, Indian 2 grossed just Rs 148.83 crore, according to industry tracker Sacnilk. In comparison, Game Changer, with a reported budget of Rs 450 crore, has earned only Rs 140.7 crore worldwide in its first six days. Besides Ram Charan, the political action film features Kiara Advani, Anjali, SJ Suryah, Srikanth, Sunil, Jayaram and Samuthirakani in key roles.
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