Kabzaa: Shivarajkumar’s character to have more prominence in part 2

Filmmaker R Chandru was hoping to keep some elements of his film, Kabzaa, as a surprise for audiences when they see it in theatres. One among them was the casting of Shivarajkumar, which, until a day before the trailer launch of Kabzaa, Chandru had not revealed anywhere. The revelation came from another source. Actress Priyanka Upendra, the wife of Kabzaa leading man Upendra, though, let slip that the Hattrick Hero was also a part of the project, which is Chandru’s biggest to date.

When the filmmaker officially confirmed Shivarajkumar’s presence in the film, netizens felt that he should not have done it and that the only reason would be because the actor features in the trailer. Well, he does, but not as overtly as any of the other characters, as Chandru has chosen a backshot of the actor for the trailer. Eagle-eyed fans figured out it was Shivarajkumar, but reiterated that it should have remained Kabzaa’s big surprise package.

A video of Shivarajkumar dubbing for his role over the weekend has been doing the rounds on social media, in which he says, “Naanu Kabzaa maado fire… Boys… positions… fire!”. It is believed that Shivarajkumar’s character will be one of the challengers to Upendra’s stake to the throne of the underworld – ‘the bloody Indian coming to kill another bloody Indian’, as mentioned in the trailer. While the actor has not shed light on his role and maintains that it is the surprise element that ought to be seen in the theatre, he does admit that his character will be more prominent in the second part of the story. The details, he says, are yet to be worked out by Chandru.

Kabzaa – The Rise of Gangsters is releasing in theatres on March 17. Produced by Chandru under his Sri Siddeshwara Enterprises, and co-produced by Alankar Pandian’s Invenio Origin, the film also stars Kiccha Sudeep, Shriya Saran, Kota Srinivas, Anoop Revanna, Kabir Duhan Singh, John Kokken, Pramod Shetty, Danish Akthar Saifi, Nawab Shah, Suneel Puranik, Murali Sharma, Posani Murali Krishna, among others. It will be presented by Anand Pandit in the north Indian belt, Lyca Productions and Red Giant in TN, and Sudhakar Reddy in AP/Telangana. The digital rights of the film rest with Amazon Prime Video.