Mani Shankar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mani Shankar is an Indian film director known for his works in Hindi cinema.[1] He directed works such as 16 December, one of the highest-grossing films of 2002, and Tango Charlie, which was screened in several International Film Festivals and was named a permanent part of the UN's "anti-war" movies. Over his long career, Mani Shankar has worked on many films, advertisements and political campaigns.[2]
Mani Shankar | |
|---|---|
| Born | Shankar Mani 3 August 1957 Guntur, India |
| Education | Hyderabad Public School |
| Alma mater | BITS, Pilani |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, producer, writer, business magnate |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Children | Prem Shankar |
Mani Shankar graduated as a Chemical Engineer from BITS Pilani in 1978.[3][4] He worked for a few years as a research engineer in process engineering and drug delivery. During his time at BITS Pilani, he won a record 4 consecutive Holofest 'Best Hologram of The Year', earning the nickname "Young Mani".[5]
Shankar introduced holograms to India. He spearheaded the first holographic campaign for Narendra Modi (the current PM of India) during the 2012 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election.[6]
He has since conducted election campaigns for various parties, including the Telangana Rashtra Samithi during the 2014 Telangana Legislative Assembly election, who eventually won the race,[7] as well as the Nationalist Congress Party during the 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, which stemmed the decline of the party.[8]
In February 2017, Mani Shankar launched the first live augmented reality political campaign in the world for Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra State, India. For the first time, such a campaign enabled an electoral candidate to virtually enter people's homes and softly pitch for votes.[9]
The campaign was declared a success. The effectivity of augmented reality as a political campaign tool was established.[10]
A series of augmented reality projects thus followed, in various fields ranging from film publicity, sports, spirituality and corporate launches.[11] Allah Rakha Rahman announced on his official Facebook page that he got his augmented reality channels done by Mani Shankar and Kaali Sudheer.[12]
