R Chandru’s Kabzaa adds to its star power; Shiva Rajkumar to do a pivotal cameo in the underworld saga

Kannada filmmaker R Chandru’s Kabzaa is his most ambitious project to date. The film, which has Real Star Upendra in the lead as a gangster who ruled South India, has a massive ensemble cast including Shriya Saran, Kiccha Sudeep, Nawab Shah, Kabir Duhan Singh, Jagapati Babu, Danish Akhtar Saifi, Rahul Dev, Anup Revanna, Pradeep Rawat, Posani Murali Krishna and Murali Sharma, among others. And now we hear that Kannada cinema’s Hattrick Hero Shiva Rajkumar will also be a part of it.

Shivanna, as the actor is popularly known, will apparently be seen in a pivotal cameo, details of which Chandru is keeping close to his chest. The actor was at the film’s set location this week, which spurred rumours that he has already begun shooting for his role in Kabzaa. In an earlier interaction with OTTplay, Chandru had said that he was looking at finishing the film by April and release the first part of the film by December this year, but it looks like he will not meet this self-set deadline, given that he is still filming it.

Kabzaa was launched way back in 2019 and has been going on for three years already. The film is set between the 1940s and 1980s, so it has been shot extensively on specially erected sets. It has music by KGF-fame Ravi Basrur. The film will be released in two parts, with Chandru planning to dub it in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Odiya and Bengali too.

Shiva Rajkumar, meanwhile, is one of the busiest actors in Kannada cinema at the moment. The actor, who was last seen onscreen in Bairagee, has Nee Sigoovaregu and Vedha up next, after which he has a slew of new films ready to take off. For instance, there is MG Srinivas’ Ghost, Lohith’s Sathyamangalam, Yogaraj Bhat’s Kuladalli Keelyavudu, Arjun Janya’s directorial debut 45, untitled projects with Sachin B Ravi and Rishab Shetty. He is also doing a pivotal role in Tamil superstar Rajinikanth’s next, Jailer.