Late actor Puneeth Rajkumar conferred with 'Karnataka Ratna' award

Bengaluru, Nov 01: Late Sandalwood's Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar was posthumously conferred with the 'Karnataka Ratna', the state's highest civilian honour, at the grand steps of the Vidhana Soudha today, which also happens to be 'Kannada Rajyotsava', the state's formation day. He will be the 10th recipient of the state's highest civilian honour.

Tamil cinema star Rajinikanth and Telugu cinema star Junior NTR attended the function.

The event will take place on the steps of Vidhana Soudha, and renowned playback singer Vijay Prakash and his companions will perform. Over 5,000 passes would be distributed for people to witness the late Puneeth Rajkumar being posthumously awarded the Karnataka Ratna.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai called Puneeth Raj Kumar a 'real Karnataka Ratna'.

The actor, who died last year after suffering a cardiac arrest, started his acting career as a child artiste and won his first Filmfare Best Child Actor for 'Bettada Hoovu' in 1985. In fact, he bagged 11 Filmfare Awards (Lifetime Achievement Award being 12th) in his successful career.

The actor, who was fondly called as Appu, had won five National Awards and four State Film Awards.

The Karnataka Ratna was last awarded to Dr Virendra Heggade for social service in 2009.

Interestingly, Puneeth's late father Rajkumar is among the first recipients of the Karnataka Ratna award in 1992, along with poet Kuvempu.

Other recipients of the award are S Nijalingappa (Politics), CNR Rao (Science), Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty (Medical), Bhimsen Joshi (Music), Shivakumara Swamiji (Social Service), and Dr J Javaregowda (Education & Literature).