Jaishankar was born and raised in Chennai.  His actual name is Subramaniam Shankar. He was pursuing law but left it midway to focus on theatre arts. He associated with the troupe named Cho’s Viveka Fien Arts but since he wasn’t offered meaningful roles, he left the troupe. He then associated himself with the troupe named Koothabiran’s Kalki Fine Arts and got the opportunity to play meaningful title roles. He garnered a lot of appreciation for his performances. He though couldn’t make it to the world of cinema since the industry was totally dominated by the veteran actors like Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, and MGR.

 

He finally made his acting debut with the Tamil film Iravum Pagalum in 1965. He became famous as an action hero. He was also called James Bond of Tamil as he mostly played detective action roles. His noted action films are CID Shankar and Vallavan Oruvan. He was also referred as “Friday Star” as he was releasing movies almost every week. It was K Balachander who brought the best out of him in Nootrukku Nooru. Besides action, he was also a renowned comic star and gave some memorable comic performances in films such as Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum and Pattanathil Bhootham.

 

After playing lead actors role in over 100 films, he in his later career played supporting and lead actor’s father’s role. He literally ruled the Tamil film industry during the decade of the 1970s and the 1980s.