Mani Shankar is an Indian film director. He was born on August 03, 1957 in Guntur. His father Ganesh Venkata Subra Mani was a renowned scholar from Andhra University. Mani completed his schooling from the Hyderabad Public School. He graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani, Rajasthan. Later, he joined his father's medicine factory. He married Subbalakshmi Shankar and started production companies called Bhairav Films, Rohini Films, and Shankar Films. He started his film career with Telugu serials for Doordarshan. He was the personal media advisor to Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. His first Hindi film was 16 December (2002). He also directed the two films - Rudraksh (2004) and Tango Charlie (2005). He was honored with a Rotary award and a gold Nandi award for his screenplay in the film Manishi. He has also won two bronze Nandi awards for his direction.