Kannada star Dhananjay has bagged the lead role in a biopic on the life of Bengaluru’s first underworld don, MP Jayaraj. The film will be directed by debutant Shoonya and produced by Ashu Bedra. Agni Shridhar, the scriptwriter of films like Aa Dinagalu, Edegarike and Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu and the director of Thamassu, is in charge of the script and dialogues of this biopic.

It has been officially announced that this untitled film will start rolling in June this year and the prep work for it has begun already. Besides Dhananjay playing MP Jayaraj, the film will also have another lead actor to essay the role of politician Devaraj Urs. However, the filmmakers are yet to sign up for any actor for this role.

Also, we hear that this biopic will be released in two parts in five languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi – across India.

Earlier, there were plans to rope in Shiva Rajkumar or Upendra to play the title role but with both the stars busy with their respective acting assignments, Dhananjay bagged the offer. This will be the actor’s second biopic after Allama in which he played the role of Allama Prabhu, a 12th century poet-saint.

Meanwhile, Dhananjay is expecting the release of Yuva Rathna, which has Puneeth Rajkumar in the lead role. The film is directed by Santosh Ananddram, who had collaborated with Puneeth to deliver the smash hit film Rajakumaraa, and is bankrolled under the banner Hombale Films. Sayyesha is playing the female lead in it and this is her first film in the Kannada film industry. S Thaman is composing music for Yuva Rathna with Jnaanesh B Matad in charge of the editing and Anguraj cranking the camera.

Dhananjay also has Daali in his kitty, another gangster flick. The film is directed by Prabhu Srinivas with Anoop Seelin in charge of the music.

(Content provided by Digital Native)