Shivarajkumar’s back: Century Star to resume work with #Shivanna131 and RC16

Considered one of the busiest actors in Kannada cinema, Century Star Shivarajkumar has been doing nothing but focusing on his recovery in the last couple of months. The actor, who has been battling cancer since March last year, which necessitated him to have bladder removal and reconstruction surgery that he got done in December in the US, has been back in India since end of January and taking it easy. Although his doctors have given him the all-clear to resume work, albeit nothing strenuous yet, Shivarajkumar chose to give himself more time to relax and recuperate.

In a recent interview, Shivarajkumar revealed that now that he’s coping well with the neobladder management, he is set to resume work. His first stop is the set of his unnamed 131st film, directed by Karthik Adwaith. The film’s tagline is ‘Violence has a new name – Deva’, but it will take some more time before Shivarajkumar can go back to doing action blocks like he used to earlier. Since he’s had open surgery to repurpose portions of his small intestine to create a new bladder, he still finds it difficult to bend and gets tired often.

Also read: Two months post-surgery, Shivarajkumar opens up on his recovery: 'I still get tired, but...' 

For now, Shivarajkumar will shoot those scenes that are not very physically challenging, which will complete a section of the film. He has allotted 3 days to the film, after which, from March 5-8 he will be in Hyderabad to shoot for Ram Charan’s untitled RC16, directed by Buchi Babu Sana. Thereafter, he reckons that he will divide time between Karthik’s film and Hemanth M Rao’s Bhairavana Kone Paata.

Also read: Geetha Shivarajkumar opens up on Shivarajkumar’s cancer diagnosis: ‘He’s been battling it since March last year…’ 

Shivarajkumar had seen through the publicity and release of his last, Bhairathi Ranagal and wrapped up his next, 45, which is the directorial debut of Arjun Janya, before heading to the US for his surgery. In fact, portions of 45 were shot while he was undergoing chemotherapy, and he says that when people see those scenes in the climax, they will be amazed that they were performed amid his declining health.