Post his recent illness Rajnikanth has started shooting for his next, a prequel to 'Rana'

Far from the full-recovery reports coming in from Chennai, Rajnikanth has now been advised to avoid any kind of strenuous roles.

Unable to cope with the gruelling stunts required for his long-delayed project Rana, Rajnikanth has now opted to shoot for a planned prequel to Rana, without Deepika Padukone as his co-star.

Deepika, we learn, was unable to provide instant dates for the prequel. A replacement heroine is being sought while Rajnikanth has already begun shooting for the new film.

The film is titled Kochadaiyaan and is being shot in the unique 'performance-capturing technique', which makes Rajnikanth's task as an actor considerably less strenuous.

Kochadaiyaan is being directed by Rajnikanth's daughter Soundarya. K S Ravikumar who was slated to direct Rana is on board now as a consultant and supervisor for Kochadaiyaan.

A source close to the project informs, "We all felt that Rajni Sir should not plunge into Rana as his first post-illness project.

Though the doctors have given him a clean chit, we all feel he should get back to the camera gradually. Rana required him to perform horse-riding and sword-fighting.

We planned a prequel anyway. We were going to make it after Rana. Now we'll do Kochadaiyaan first and Rana later."

Though Deepika is not required in Kochadaiyaan, she has explicitly informed Rajnikanth that she would make herself available to do Rana whenever required.

The break from the Rana schedule has proved a boon to the actress who has quickly allotted the dates to Ayaan Mukerji for Yeh Jawani Hai Diwanee with Ranbir Kapoor.

Says the source, "Though finally the audience will get to see Rajni Sir performing a lot of stunts, it will all be computer-generated.

This new technique has so far not been applied to any Indian film, only to James Cameron's Avatar and Steven Spielberg's Tin Tin.

Rajni Sir will be seen performing all kinds of daring stunts without actually having to do them." Soundarya confirms, "It is true we are doing Kochadaiyaan. My father is fine and back to his routine."