Prabhas to star in 'KGF' director Prashanth Neel's next, 'Salaar'

South star Prabhas is set to play the lead in director Prashanth Neel's underworld action thriller, "Salaar", the makers announced on Wednesday.

Pan Indian project

Billed as a "pan India" project and produced by Hombale Films, the film will see the "Baahubali" star play a "violent character".

Prabhas said "Salaar" has provided him with an exciting opportunity to delve into a role he hasn't played before.

"This is a very exciting film and my character is extremely violent, so this is something I haven't really done before. It's a pan-Indian film and I can't wait to be on the sets already," the 41-year-old actor said in a statement.

To kick start soon

Neel, known for helming the blockbuster "KGF" action movie franchise, said he was in talks with Prabhas for a long time and is looking forward to beginning the project next year.

"We are all geared up to present one of a kind actioner to our audiences. They are definitely going to see Prabhas in a never seen before avatar, which am confident cinema fans will love," the director added.

Producer Vijay Kiragandur said Hombale Films believes in providing a larger-than-life cinematic experience to the audience and "Salaar" will deliver on that front.

"This is a very special for us and am really happy to collaborate with Prashanth Neel and Prabhas for this. They're both so good at what they do and we can't wait to begin the shoot soon. I'm hopeful that the audiences will continue to give us same amount of love," Kiragandur said.

Prabhas' big projects

This is the fourth film announcement of Prabhas, after Nag Ashwin's multilingual sci-fi film co-starring Deepika Padukone, Om Raut's screen adaptation of the epic Ramayana "Adipurush" and romantic-drama "Radhe Shyam", directed by Radha Krishna Kumar.

"Salaar" is aiming to release in 2021.