Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, popularly known as shotgun, has shaved off his trademark moustache to play the late Telugu leader N T Rama Rao in Ram Gopal Varma’s latest flick ‘Rakta Charitra’.

It will be perhaps for the first time that the actor will appear without his moustache on the big screen.

“I had to do it with a heavy heart as the director said it is must for the character I am playing,” Sinha said.

Shotgun, BJP MP from Patna Saheb in Bihar, has taken a break from politics to focus on his role in the movie but he plans to finish the shooting on time to hit the campaign trail in Jharkhand for the upcoming assembly elections.

Sinha, who has acted in hits like ‘Kalicharan’, ‘Kala Pathar’, ‘Dostana’, ‘Kranti’ and ‘Shaan’, plays the lead in the multilingual film and his character resembles the former actor-turned Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief NTR.

The actor said his part in the film would be to play a role similar to NTR, Telugu superstar of yester-years.

“It is a big challenge and I would try to do my best to do justice to the role,” he said.

NTR, the popular actor-turned politician who launched the Telugu Desam Party in 1983, won the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections with a landslide victory and became the chief minister.

Director Verma said that his film was similar in tone and spirit with epic Mahabharata.

Apart from Sinha, the film also stars actor Vivek Oberoi, who made his acting debut with Verma’s ‘Company’ in 2002.

‘Rakta Charitra’ will be made in three languages - Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Verma, who has worked with Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Sarkar’, ‘Sarkar Raj’ and upcoming film ‘Rann’, has teamed up with Sinha for the first time.

“Ramu came to me and said he dreamt of doing a movie with me since the day he saw me in ‘Kala Pathar’. I had no option than to say yes to him,” Sinha said.

Asked about his changing role from real to reel life, Sinha, who was a member of Union cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA government, said despite his busy political engagements he had no plans to say goodbye to acting.

One of the top stars of Hindi movies in the 70s and 80s, Sinha joined BJP around two-and-a-half decades back.

He recently completed a movie ‘Aaj Bhi Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai’ with Rekha, which will soon hit the theatres.