The son of yesteryear Sandalwood legend Rajkumar, actor Shiva Rajkumar has lived up to the legacy of his father and ruled the roost in Kannada cinema for over three decades now. He debuted with the musical romantic drama Anand in 1986 and has since appeared in over 125 films, bagging several prestigious awards along the way.
A four-time winner of the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor, some of Shiva's critically acclaimed performances have come in movies like Om (1995), Janumada Jodi (1996), Hrudaya Hrudaya (1999), Chigurida Kanasu (2003), Jogi (2005), Thamassu (2010), Bhajarangi (2013) and more recently, the neo-noir action crime thriller Mufti (2017). He has also been nominated eight times for a Filmfare Award for Best Actor, and has won the accolade four times.
Notable among the versatile actor's recent movie credits are the drama film Bangara s/o Bangarada Manushya (2017), the action-thriller Mass Leader (2017), the well-received crime-thriller Tagaru (2018) and The Villain (2018), the last of which saw Shiva sharing screen space with Kiccha Sudeep. Besides these, he also appeared in the crime thriller Kavacha (2018), which was a remake of the Malayalam movie Oppam (2016); and Rustum (2019). Shiva's younger brother Puneeth Rajkumar is also an actor, and one of the most sought-after stars in contemporary Kannada cinema.