It's official: Shivrajkumar to play cameo in Balakrishna's 100th film Gautamiputra Satakarni

Producer Y Rajeev Reddy has revealed that Kannada superstar Shivrajkumar (Shiva Rajkumar/Shivaraj Kumar) has agreed to play a cameo role in Nandamuri Balakrishna's upcoming Telugu movie Gautamiputra Satakarni.

Y Rajeev Reddy is jointly producing Gautamiputra Satakarni with Saibabu Jagarlamudi and Suhasini Panguluri under the banner First Frame Entertainments. In a statement, the producer confirmed the news about casting Shivrajkumar for the film.

This will be the first time that an actor from late Dr Rajkumar's family will be working in an industry other than Kannada. "Shivrajkumar sir will play a special guest role. What's really interesting is that nobody from his family - and it includes his late father (Rajkumar) and brother (Puneeth Rajkumar) - has acted in any other language other than Kannada," Rajeev told IANS.

National Award winning filmmaker Krish aka Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi has written the story and screenplay and is also directing Gautamiputra Satakarni, which is an epic historical action film. Nandamuri Balakrishna is playing the title role in the movie, while Shriya Saran, Hema Malini and Kabir Bedi appear in important roles.

Y Rajeev Reddy declined to divulge details about the role to be played by Shivrajkumar in Gautamiputra Satakarni. "I can't comment about the character. Since he has agreed to play a guest role, Krish is working on the role. We are planning to shoot his portion from November 15 onwards," the producer said.

Gautamiputra Satakarni was launched at a grand function on April 22 in Hyderabad. The film was later shot in Morocco and Rajasthan and is nearing the completion of shooting. The makers have planned to release the movie during Sankranti in 2017. "We have two songs and some patchwork left. We are almost done with the principal shoot," Y Rajeev Reddy added.

Gautamiputra Satakarni is a prestigious project for Nandamuri Balakrishna as it happens to be his 100th film. After carefully scanning through several scripts, Balaya chose Krish's story, which is about an unsung warrior from Satavahana dynasty. The movie is being made on a lavish budget.