Shankar was born on August 17, 1963 in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India to Muthulakshmi and Shanmugam. He holds a diploma in Mechanical Engineering.

Shankar began his career as an assistant to film director and producer, S. A. Chandrasekhar. He was later appointed as an assistant director to director Pavithran in his 1991 Tamil film, Vasanthakala Paravai, starring R. Sarathkumar. In 1993, he decided to become an independent director and, thus, began Gentleman. Starring Arjun Sarja in the lead, the film was made with the highest budget in Tamil cinema at the time and eventually became a high grosser following release. The film