March 4, 2009
Mangalore
Prajwal alias Kartik Shetty, son of Vijay Shetty, resident of Nakre - Kedike, Karkala taluk, is all set to play the lead in Kannada movie ‘Yuva’.
Karthik who attained fame with his debut directorial venture, Marathi movie ‘Bhakti Hich Kari Shakti’, is now headed south armed with training and experience in script writing and movie direction from the metro.
Sandalwood director Nagendra Babu known for his romantic movies such as ‘O Gulabi’ and ‘Pallakki’ was in search of a hero to cast in ‘Yuva’ when he came across Karthik, who is also a distant relative of Kannada music director Gurukiran.
Karthik is also a disciple of Yajnesh Shetty, stuntman for the Kannada movie ‘Cheeta’. Karthik has a lot of acting experience as he has been performing in Hindi, Marathi, and Tulu plays from his childhood. He has also bagged the ‘best child actor’ award.
Karthik pursued courses in script writing and direction soon after dropping out during his higher secondary course.
Karthik had cast Ashok Saraf and other leading actors in his Marathi movie. Although Karthik had plans to continue being mentored by national award winning director Mahesh Manjrekar, he decided to explore major breaks in sandalwood as envisioned by Gurukiran and Yajnesh Shetty.
‘Yuva’ has Telugu actor Madhu Sharma in the female lead and will feature mega stunts performed by Karthik and others under the guidance of Yajnesh Shetty.
Karthik has managed to attain fluency in Kannada just in two months after being tutored in the language so as to make his character in the movie appear genuine. He said that the fact that his mother is fluent in Kannada, helped him pick up the language faster.
Karthik is also into martial arts and has a black belt. He has also trained in western dance, and is also into horse-riding.
Bollywood actor Gulshan Grover will be the villain in ‘Yuva’ and Saroj Khan is the choreographer.
Karthik has now pinned his hopes on ‘Yuva’ becoming a box office hit and helping him carve a niche for himself in Kannada movies as an action hero.