Shankar Roy Chowdhury (character)

Shankar Roy Chowdhury
Chander Pahar (franchise) character
A portrait of Shankar from Chander Pahar novel.
First appearance	Chander Pahar (novel) Chander Pahar (film)
Last appearance	Amazon Obhijaan
Created by	Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Portrayed by	Dev
Information
Aliases	Shankar
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Explorer
Relatives	Diego Alvarez (Friend)
Religion	Hindu
Nationality	Indian

Shankar Roy Chowdhury is a fictional character and the hero of the story- Chander Pahar, a young Bengali man from a village in Bengal. He is a smart, brave person who has a penchant for adventures. Shankar appeared in Chander Pahar (franchise).

Shankar is an ordinary young Bengali boy, from a nondescript village of Bengal. He is a 20-year-old youth, recently graduated from college and due to financial difficulties in the family, was about to take up a job in a jute mill of Shyamnagar, a prospect he absolutely loathes.

Since childhood geography has been his pet subject; he has wanted to follow the footsteps of renowned explorers like Livingstone, Mungo Park, and Marco Polo, all of whom he has read about. He yearns for adventure, wild lands, forests and animals and the continent of Africa. By a stroke of luck, he secures a job as a clerk in Uganda Railway through an acquaintance already holding a post there and joyously rushes to Africa without a second thought.

There, he spends a few months as a part of a company laying rail tracks but soon encounters the first of many dangers of Pre-World War I Africa—man-eating lions who claim the lives of a few of his new-found friends in Africa. Later he takes up a job as station master in a desolate station amidst the Veldts. Here his presence of mind enables him to have a narrow escape from another hazard in Africa: the deadly black mamba. While at this post, Shankar one day encounters,rescues and nurses Diego Alvarez, a middle-aged Portuguese explorer and gold/diamond prospector. Alvarez's arrival becomes a turning point in Shankar's life. While recuperating, Alvarez narrated his earlier exploits in Africa with his friend Jim Carter. Lured by a priceless, uncut yellow diamond gifted by the Chief of a Kaafi village, Alvarez and Carter had resolved to find the cave of these yellow diamonds, located on the Mountain of the Moon- Chander Pahar- in the Richtersveldt, which was believed to be guarded by the mythical monster, the Bunyip.The explorers set off, much against the villagers' advice, braved the dense jungle and hostile environment but met with disaster- for Carter was gruesomely killed, supposedly by the Bunyip.