Shankar Panicker, is an Indian film actor and director, popularly known as Shankar in Malayalam films.A superstar of the early eighties, he was the most prominent romantic lead actor of Malayalam cinema after Prem Nazir. Galatta Cinema magazine described him as the True romantic hero of Mollywood in their special edition on 100 years of Indian cinema Shankar directed a video film Kaatti in 2006 based on child labour which won him the best director award from Malayalam Television viewers DRISHYA awards for video film. He made his feature film debut with Virus,an Indo-American co-production urging the society not to shun HIV/AIDS affected people.Shankar is living in Cochin with his mother. He was married to Rooparekha but ended in divorce.The couple has a son. He is married to Chitra Lekshmi, a dancer teacher on 2013.