Suresh Oberoi as Rajkumar

In a film based on Veerappan,Kishore will play brigands role.Arjun Sarja will appear as STF head Vijay Kumar


AKannada film on late Veerappan is all set to go on floors,with actor Kishore playing the forest brigands role.Bollywood actor Suresh Oberoi has been roped in to don the role of late Rajkumar,who was abducted by the sandalwood smuggler.Earlier,veteran Telugu actor Akkineni Nageshwar Rao was to play the role,but the 86-year-old actor opted out,citing old age.
Arjun Sarja is playing Vijay Kumar,the former head of Special Task Force,who is said to have gunned down the forest brigand.
Sources say director AMR Ramesh is hunting for suitable locations for the film titled Attahasa.The makers say Suresh Oberoi has agreed to do the role.However,his character the kidnapping and the subsequent events will not be the central theme of the flick.Instead,the film focuses on the lifespan of Veerappan.The legendary actor was kept in captivity for 108 days by Veerappan and released after an alleged ransom was paid.Kishore has reduced his weight considerably for the project.I have to look like someone living in the forest, he says.But he is not going to sport a handle-bar moustache similar to the one Veerappan sported.
It will take me at least two years.That is not possible now.A moustache was imported,but that did not suit the requirement.Now a special one is being designed specially for the role, he says.Nagappa Maradagi,who was abducted along with Rajkumar,will reprise the same role in the film.So will Shivakumar,who spent nearly three years in jail for his alleged links with Veerappan.The film will also be made in Tamil as Vana Yuddham.A film on Veerappan was made in Kannada years before he abducted Rajkumar.It won the best actor state award for Devraj.