Abishan Jeevinth lines up father-son drama with Shiva Rajkumar for his next as actor

Abishan Jeevinth’s next as a leading man has gone on the floors, and the casting headline is the one that has done the rounds in Tamil and Kannada trade circles since yesterday: Kannada superstar Shiva Rajkumar will play his father in the film.

The project pairs Abishan, who broke out as the writer-director-actor of Tourist Family and most recently led With Love, with a director making his own debut behind the camera. Gowtham Sivaraman, who was the co-director on Tourist Family, takes the chair on this one, with Balamurugan, an assistant director on both Tourist Family and Lover, also attached to the unit. The shoot has begun, marked by a small pooja, and the makers have not yet put out an official title or producer.

The story is being described in trade notes as an emotional father-son drama, and the film is reportedly being mounted in multiple languages, including Kannada, which would put it directly into Shiva Rajkumar’s home market alongside its Tamil release. That positioning is consistent with the actor’s recent run on this side of the border. His Jailer cameo as Narasimha turned into a fanbase-building moment in Tamil Nadu, his supporting turn as Dhanush’s brother in Captain Miller landed cleanly, and he is now between Jailer 2, where Narasimha returns, and Peddi, the Ram Charan-led Telugu film slated for early June.

For Abishan, the film is the next move in a deliberately staggered career. Tourist Family established him as a director who could write small and play big; With Love kept the actor side warm. A father-son two-hander opposite a senior with Shiva Rajkumar’s screen weight is the sort of part that decides whether the acting strand of his career holds its own next to the directing one. The official announcement, with title, producer and the rest of the cast, is expected shortly.