Kannada star Chiranjeevi Sarja’s untimely demise in June this year has left a deep void in the film industry, with his family, friends and fans in deep shock. Recently, the internet was flooded with pics of his wife Meghana Raj’s baby shower function with a cut-out of the late star beside her.
On October 17th, Chiranjeevi’s family, the film fraternity and fans are set to celebrate this birth anniversary and there are two reasons to look forward to it. The theatres are set to reopen with the state government relaxing the lockdown rules and Chiranjeevi’s Shivarjuna will re-release on the eve of his birth anniversary. Incidentally, the film had hit the marquee before the lockdown was announced in March this year.
Shivarjuna is a family - action film written and directed by Shiva Thejas and bankrolled by M B Manjula Shivarjun under the banner Nischitha Combines. It stars Chiranjeevi Sarja, Amrutha Iyengar and Akshatha Srinivas in the lead with Kishore, Tara, Avinash, and Kuri Prathap in the supporting roles. The background score and soundtrack for the film was done by Surag Kokila and the cinematography was handled by H C Venu with KM Prakash taking care of the edits. Shivarjuna is the remake of the 2004 Tamil film Giri which had Chiranjeevi Sarja’s uncle Arjun Sarja in the lead role and, Divya Spandana and Reema Sen as the heroines.
And on his birth anniversary, a single from the star’s upcoming film Raja Marthanda is set for release. The film’s shooting has been wrapped up and it is currently in the post-production mode. Reports are that Chiru wasn’t able to complete dubbing for Raja Marthanda and his brother and actor Dhruva Sarja will be doing it now to ensure the film releases without any hitches.
Ram Narayan is directing this entertainer which has Om Prakash Rao making a cameo appearance. Deepti Sati plays Chiru’s lead pair in it. Triveni, who was seen in Tagaru, is the second heroine. Arjun Janya is the music composer for this flick and the cinematography is done by Jabez K Ganesh.
Chiru’s last film release was Aadya which released in February this year. Aadya was a mystery thriller, directed by K. M. Chaitanya. It starred the late actor Chiranjeevi Sarja in the lead role along with Sruthi Hariharan. Sangeetha Bhat also shared the screen space with them with the supporting cast comprising Ravishankar Gowda and Shashank Purushotham. Sridhar V Sambhram had composed music for this venture with V Malhar Bhat Joshi handling the cinematography and Akshay P Rao doing the edits. Aadya was the remake of the hit Telugu film Kshanam, directed by Ravikanth Perepu.
The star had also inked a deal to star in the Kannada movie April this year. The official pooja of this film happened earlier this year but the shooting did not commence due to the lockdown. Sadly, the actor passed away in June this year. It was supposed to be directed by Satya Rayala and produced by Narayan Babu.