Rajinikanth: I was sweating when I had to do duets with Sonakshi

He may have worked in about 170 films in a career spanning nearly four decades, but superstar Rajinikanth says he was tense while shooting duets with Sonakshi Sinha for his upcoming film Lingaa.

"I worked very hard for this film. Working hard does not mean the action scenes of a train fight or climax fight," Rajinikanth says.

"It is about doing duets with these two girls (Sonakshi and Anushka Shetty). I know Sonakshi since her childhood. She grew up at the same time like Aishwarya and Soundarya (his daughters) did.

"I was sweating when I had to do duets with her. I did not feel so tensed even while doing the first take in my first film. If God is to punish an artiste, it is by letting him do a duet after the age of 60," he said, evoking peels of laughter at a curtain-raiser event for Lingaa held in Hyderabad last evening.

The film, scheduled to hit the silver screens on December 12,

would be released in Telugu as well.

Rajinikanth said he acted in Lingaa after a gap of about four-and-half years, as Kochadaiyan (released earlier this year), an animation film, belonged to a different genre.

Lingaa deals with the construction of a mega dam and is set in the pre-independence era.

"It is my luck that I have done such a film in my career," he said.

Noting that the film wrapped up in just six months though it dealt with a big story, busy stars and technicians like A R Rahman, Sonakshi Sinha, Anushka and involved thousands of artistes, he praised the film's director K S Ravikumar, producer Rockline Venkatesh and the technicians for completing the movie in a short time.

Image: Sonakshi Sinha and Rajinikanth in Lingaa