Celebrating 25 years of Shivrajkumar

Shivarajkumar will complete 25-years in the Kannada industry on February 19.

The actor plans to celebrate his journey in filmdom by holding a gala thanksgiving affair. He plans to felicitate the crew he has worked with over the years.

"From my directors, producers, choreographers, technicians to music and action directors, I want to honour them all," says Shivanna.

Actors Ravichandran and Jaggesh, who have also reached the 25-year mark in cinema will be feted.

Prem who is directing the actor's 100th film, Jogaiah, is also planning the launch of the film's audio to commemorate Shivanna's success.

"The songs will be made available to the public on February 19 itself. But the official launch will take place in a grand ceremony on March 2 at Palace Grounds.

As part of the entertainment programme that is being planned, film stars will be roped in to dance to Shivanna's hit numbers from his first film Anand to his yet to be released Jogaiah.

Four choreographers -- Imran, Nagesh, Kalai and Harsha --will  assist the stars. Songs have been divided into categories such as village, rowdism, sentimental and romantic. Actors Upendra, Ravichandran, Ramesh Arvind, Jaggesh, Sudha Rani and Tara among others are expected to participate.

The music of Jogaiah is most awaited given the frenzy that the music of its prequel, Jogi, had created. While Gurukiran had composed the music for Jogi, Harikrishna is in charge of Jogaiah. It remains to be seen whether this album too will rule the music industry, but Prem being the showman he is, is leaving no stone unturned to publicise the album.

This time he has shot aghori sadhus in a song. Posters also show Shivanna dressed like one. The song that is dedicated to lord Shiva and shot in Haridwar took ten days to complete. It involved over 70 dancers.

Another song, picturised on a war sequence, has been shot in 3D format. "Bangalore has 3D theatres but to enable fans across Karnataka to view this in 3D format, we are making arrangements to rent a theatre each in Mysore, Hubli and Shimoga among other places and provide 3D facility," says Prem. 

About the war sequence, he said, "We are trying to draw a parallel between the kinds of wars fought today and those that were fought years ago. In fact we have shot the scene at a battle place of King Ashoka. Shivarajkumar's character in certain ways resembles that of the king," is all that Prem is ready to say at this point.

Following in the footsteps of Super team, Prem is also making sure that his album does not become yet another piracy victim. Measures are being taken to lock the audio CDs in this regard. 

What has added hype to the film is just not the story and music but also talks that Prem is trying to get Tamil actor Rajnikanth to feature in the film. "It's too early to talk about that. As of now nothing is happening on that front," says Prem.

And given his ability to pull in stars for the launch of his films and their music, who is going to be the guest of honour this time?

"This programme is for the public, it's our way of thanking them. They are our honoured guests. However Shivarajkumar is a big fan of Kamal Haasan and we will try and get him to grace the occasion."