BENGALURU: Kannada film star Puneeth Rajkumar, who started as a child artist and went on to rule the big screen in the footsteps of his father and legend Rajkumar, died of a massive cardiac arrest here on Friday afternoon, leaving legions of his fans shellshocked.
The actor was 46.
The youngest son of thespian Rajkumar, Puneeth made his first big-screen appearance when he was just six months old in ‘Premada Kaanike’. He acted in 13 more films as child artist. After a hiatus, he was back with ‘Appu’ in 2002 as the lead actor and courted phenomenal success. He acted in 32 movies in all as an actor in later years.
‘Power Star’ to his fans and ‘Appu’ to his family and friends, Puneeth’s last rites will be performed with full state honours on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
The family is waiting for Puneeth’s elder daughter Drithi, who is studying in the US, to arrive. The actor will be laid to rest next to his mother’s samadhi at Raj Memorial in Kanteerava Studio.
Sources said Puneeth complained of uneasiness during his morning workout at home around 11am Friday. His wife Ashwini took him to their family doctor Ramana Rao’s hospital in nearby Aramanenagar where an ECG revealed an acute heart attack. Even as Dr Rao suggested that he be taken to Vikram Hospital, Puneeth’s condition deteriorated and he collapsed there. He was rushed to Vikram Hospital, Vasanthnagar, around 11.40am.
Puneeth’s younger daughter Vanditha, too, reached the hospital. His elder siblings — actors Shivarajkumar, who was busy with the release of his latest movie ‘Bajarangi 2’, and Raghavendra Rajkumar, Lakshmi and Poornima — rushed to the hospital.
In spite of our attempts, his heart failed to pick up: Doc
On arrival at the hospital, Puneeth Rajkumar was non-responsive and his heart had stopped, the condition called cardiac asystole. We initiated cardiac resuscitation with the procedures, including cardiac massage and shock therapy. He was put on a ventilator and other medication. In spite of our attempts, his heart failed to pick up. We had to stop the resuscitation procedure at 2.30pm after a prolonged struggle,” said Dr Ranganath Nayak, cardiologist at Vikram Hospital.
CM Basavaraj Bommai, who cancelled his engagements, rushed to the hospital. The actor’s eyes were harvested as per his pledge. The body was taken to his Sadashivanagar residence from where it was shifted to Kanteerava Stadium in the evening for public viewing. His body will lie in state at the stadium on Saturday. Family sources said he appeared exhausted on Thursday night after returning from the birthday party of music composer Gurukiran.
“Karnataka state has lost an iconic actor, who had monumental achievements at a young age. He was the youth icon. The irony is that he had taken part in a pre-release event of his brother’s film Bajrangi-2 and danced just a couple of days ago. He had called me yesterday for a scheduled meeting today (Friday), but willed otherwise,” Bommai, who Puneeth was to meet on Friday afternoon for inviting the CM for the launch of his web portal on Monday on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava, said.
His elder brother Raghavendra, who has survived two heart attacks, said Puneeth looked after him when he was sick. “On my turn, I could not bring him back from the hospital. We will never be able to come out of the grief. However, we take respite in the fact that an artiste would never die and Puneeth will live on through his body of work,” he said.
Film industry representatives said Puneeth’s passing has dealt a blow to the industry as he exhibited entrepreneur skills. They compared Puneeth’s demise to actor-director-producer Shankar Nag’s death in a road accident in 1989 at a young age of 38.
They said Puneeth, too, gave a corporate touch to marketing of films and had ventured into TV and OTT content. He had once said he had plans to take Kannada films to the global audience by leveraging digital media and OTT platforms.
