Karrthik Adwait to direct Shivarajkumar in an action thriller

Shivarajkumar, who already has half a dozen films in his kitty at different stages of production, has signed yet another interesting project. The Century Star will be collaborating with Karrthik Adwait for an action thriller. The filmmaker, who is awaiting the release of his first Tamil directorial, Paayum Oli Nee Yenakku, starring Vikram Prabhu and Dhananjay, will make his Kannada debut with the Shivanna project.

Karrthik is working on the pre-production of the film in Bengaluru. Sharing his excitement about working with Shivanna, Karrthik says, “Work has begun, and we are hoping to kick off the project in 2023. This film will be an action thriller, and will be unlike any of his previous films. He was amazed by the narration, and happily green-lit the project.”

Recalling his first memory of Shivanna’s films, Karrthik says, “I watched the Telugu version of Simhada Mari, and enjoyed Shivanna’s role. I like Shivanna’s way of underplaying characters, especially in Ak47, Jogi, and Om. He is among the few commercial heroes who can pull off such roles. He will be bringing in shades of such a character in our film, which will have a lot of scope for performance.”

Karrthik says he has also been a big fan of Puneeth and remembers him coming from Hyderabad to Bengaluru to see Jackie on the big screen. “As a filmmaker, I do follow a lot of Kannada films, and right now I’m working on my language skills.”

The filmmaker shares that his passion for cinema began at the age of 16 when he worked part-time as an editor and later associated with Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao (Baahubali). Having pursued a Master’s at New York Film Academy, he also had his stint in ad filmmaking before he plunged into films.      

This project will mark Sudheer Chandra Padiri’s first production, and will be made under the SCFC banner. Shivanna, who has completed shooting for Harsha’s Vedha, is currently juggling between the shooting for Srini’s Ghost and Yogaraj Bhat’s Karataka Damanaka. Meanwhile, he also has 45 with composer-turned-director Arjun Janya, and a project with Sachin Ravi. This apart, he will be seen as a pivotal character in Rajinikanth’s Jailer, and is expected to be part of Dhanush’s Captain Miller too.