Exclusive! Shivarajkumar: Tagaru was a turning point in my career; I began experimenting again

Throughout his career, Century Star Shivarajkumar has been known to do different kinds of roles, some of which became cult classics, while others did not get the due they deserved. Despite this openness to trying new roles and stories, Shivarajkumar admits that he had a phase in which he tried playing it safe and sticking to a certain format of films, without too much experimentation. This was the time, when he did films that were in sync with his image as an actor and rejected those that did not fall in that bracket.

“Tagaru was when I started to think that I should try something different. The Suri directorial did not have the usual style of story-telling; it followed a non-linear narrative. It gave me the push to look begin experimenting with roles again,” Shivarajkumar tells us about his recent choices of films and roles. What also happened is that the actor stopped worrying about fan expectations and his image as a star. “The script became the only criteria, with the focus on getting people to watch it no matter what. I realized that it becomes difficult for an actor if you get stuck to a certain image. You have to keep building on that and there’s no breaking free. Ultimately, you can’t be larger-than-life and become a god, that’s impossible,” he reasons.

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The actor is also very clear that when choosing subjects to work on, they have to be high on entertainment value. “I am not averse to films with a social message, but they should be logical and told within a framework of entertainment. If you preach to audiences, they will not like it,” adds Shivarajkumar, whose latest, Ghost is set for its OTT debut shortly. The film, directed by MG Srinivas is inching closer to 25 days at the box office, following which it will drop on Zee5 Kannada on November 17.

Ghost movie review: Shivarajkumar and MG Srinivas deliver on their promise of action heist thriller; it's fun, stylish and has substance too