M P Shankar

M. P. Shankar was the third son of Puttalingappa and Gangamma and was born on August 20, 1935. Puttalingappa ran a handloom textile industry near the now existing Shankar Mutt and later suffered losses, following which the family got into financial crisis.

M.P. Shankar was a veteran Kannada film actor. He acted in films like Satya Harishchandra as "Veera Baahu", Bhootayyana Maga Ayyu, Ratnamanjari etc.

He produced the film Gandhada Gudi starring Dr. Rajkumar. He died on 17 July 2008 in Mysore.

Shankar became famous for his rich voice and strong build. He dominated the villain space in the Kannada film industry for nearly a decade. However, he will forever be remembered as a director. All his films carried a message and many of them like Gandhadagudi (starring Dr. Rajkumar and Vishnu Vardhan) were strong commentaries on dwindling forests and fate of wild animals.- Naren Vijayasimha