Director, actor and writer · Telugu cinema
Harish Shankar
Harish Shankar movies: 17 Telugu films on file (9 as director, 8 as actor, 5 as writer), 2003–2026. Earliest on file: Ninne Istapaddanu (2003). Latest release: Ustaad Bhagat Singh (19 March 2026).
- Films on file
- 17 (9 as director, 8 as actor, 5 as writer)
- Years on file
- 2003–2026
- Born
- 31 March 1979 · March birthdays (Wikidata)
- Selected films on file
- Gabbar Singh, Duvvada Jagannadham, Ramayya Vasthavayya
- Record
- Q16218780 on Wikidata
Harish Shankar (born Sanganabhatla Harish Shankar, 31 March 1979) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works only in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He made his debut with Shock (2006), produced by Ram Gopal Varma, and is best known for Mirapakay (2011) and the blockbuster Gabbar Singh (2012), for which he received the SIIMA and CineMAA awards for Best Director.
Early life
Harish Shankar was born in Dharmapuri, Telangana, and grew up in the BHEL township in Hyderabad. He has a younger brother, Vishnu Prasad, and a younger sister, and studied at Osmania University.
Theatre and writing
He started out acting on stage with the Hyderabad groups Seeta Nilayam and Lalitha Kala Mandiram before turning to writing and screenwriting. He is influenced by the novelist Yandamuri Veerendranath and has a keen interest in dialects and regional speech. He worked with Kona Venkat, Puri Jagannadh and Ram Gopal Varma, and was an associate director on films such as Ninne Istapaddanu and Veede.
Early films as director
His first film, the crime drama Shock, starred Ravi Teja. He had originally planned Mirapakay with Pawan Kalyan, but made it instead with Ravi Teja in 2011.
Gabbar Singh and after
Pawan Kalyan then asked him to direct Gabbar Singh, the Telugu remake of Dabangg. According to the source it grossed ₹150 crore worldwide, one of the highest-grossing Telugu films at the time. He followed it with Ramayya Vasthavayya (2013), and with Allu Arjun‘s DJ: Duvvada Jagannadham (2017), which the source also says grossed ₹150 crore.
Later films
He directed Varun Tej in Gaddalakonda Ganesh (2019), a remake of the Tamil film Jigarthanda that did well at the box office. He reunited with Ravi Teja for Mr. Bachchan (2024), a remake of Raid, which was panned and failed commercially.
Career on file
Harish Shankar has 17 Telugu films on file at Tollywood Desk, dated from 2003 to 2026: nine films as director, eight films as actor and five films as writer. The earliest of them is Ninne Istapaddanu (2003), and the most recent release is Ustaad Bhagat Singh (2026). Measured by how many Wikipedia language editions cover them, the best-known titles here are Gabbar Singh (2012), Duvvada Jagannadham (2017) and Ramayya Vasthavayya (2013). Other recent releases on file are Funky (2026), Oh Bhama Ayyo Rama (2025) and Mr. Bachchan (2024).
Brahmanandam is the most frequent co-star, sharing four films with Harish Shankar, followed by Ravi Teja (2) and Ali (2). In the films Harish Shankar directed, Ravi Teja and Kota Srinivasa Rao appear most often (three films each), ahead of Shruti Haasan (2) and Pooja Hegde (2). Devi Sri Prasad, Mickey J. Meyer and S. Thaman each scored three of them, more than any other music director. Sri Venkateswara Creations produced three of them, more than any other banner on file. Across these films the credits on file name 8 different directors, 12 music directors and 57 other credited actors.
Runtime is on file for 14 of them; they average 154 minutes, and the longest is Gaddalakonda Ganesh at 172 minutes. Eight of them have a streaming (OTT) release noted on the site. By decade the list splits into 2000s (5), 2010s (8) and 2020s (4).
Figures come from the films on file at Tollywood Desk and change as records are added.