The shooting schedule for superstar Rajnikanth’s upcoming movie ‘Kabali’ is expected to commence later this month at the Chennai airport.

The shooting in Chennai is expected to be a brief schedule and will last for only a week after which the crew is moving to Malaysia where most of the film would be shot, reported a source from the film’s unit to IANS. The film shoot is set to start rolling tentatively from September 17.

‘Kabali’, produced by Kalaipuli S Dhanu, narrates the story of a real-life Chennai-based underworld don, to be played by the Superstar. Other stars essaying supporting roles in the film include Dhansikaa, Radhika Apte, Prakash Raj, Dinesh and Kalaiarasan. Pa. Ranjith will be wielding the director’s baton; Santhosh Narayanan will be the music director; Murali will handle the cinematography and Praveen K L the editing.

The title of the film is short for ‘Kabaleeshwaran’, the main protagonist in the movie who came from the Mylapore area in Chennai. On August 16, Pa Ranjith had resorted to Twitter to release the title of the upcoming superstar starrer, just a day before the completion of Rajnikanth’s 40 years in the film industry. Concurrently, a section of Rajnikanth’s fans created a new hashtag- #40YearsOfSuperstarRajinikanth – enabling all fans to share their memories of watching and enjoying the movies of the star.

Pa Ranjith revealed to IANS that Rajnikanth, in his 159th film, will be essaying the role of a large-hearted ageing gangster. The superstar would get an image makeover to suit the content-oriented role. It is not the first time that Rajnikanth will play the role of a don. He has done it multiple times before and, perhaps, his most famous one was in the blockbuster hit, ‘Baasha’.

Although the shooting was supposed to have commenced on August 2, owing to some delay, the film will begin to roll with the formal muhurat shot on September 17 and regular shooting will begin shortly after. While the initial few minutes will be in Chennai, the rest of the story will be set in Malaysia. The film is not going to be the typical masala movie known to Rajnikanth’s fans. Pa. Ranjith is expected to bring his own presentation style into the film.

Radhika Apte, the Ahalya sensation, will be paired opposite Rajnikanth. While some women characters have had powerful roles in his earlier films including Ramya Krishnan in Padayappa, Aishwarya Rai in Endhiran and Jyothika in Chandramukhi, others have donned just song-and-dance roles merely for added glamour. Radhika Apte has claimed that she will be playing a strong and challenging character in ‘Kabali’ which will not be restricted to being just another ‘glam’doll’. Rajnikanth’s daughter role will be essayed by Dhansika.