CM announces ‘Karnataka Ratna’ award for Puneeth Rajkumar

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday announced that late actor Puneeth Rajkumar will be awarded the Karntaka Ratna posthumously on November 1 at Vidhana Soudha.

The CM announced that Puneeth Rajkumar will be awarded the Karnataka Ratna posthumously on November 1.

The Karnataka Ratna Award was instituted in 1992 by the state government and the first recipients of the award were national poet Kuvempu and Dr Rajkumar in the same year. The award is given to outstanding achievers in any field.

A total of nine dignitaries have been presented the award so far. Puneeth Rajkumar will be awarded posthumously for his achievements in his lifetime and will become the tenth recipient.

The meeting was held under the leadership of CM Basavaraj Bommai and other ministers, along with Raghavendra Rajkumar and Ashwini PuneethRajkumar, to discuss the award presentation ceremony.

The stage is set for Puneeth Parva in the Palace grounds.

“We have decided to award the Karnataka Ratna to our beloved late actor Puneeth Rajkumar on November 1 at 4 pm for his lifetime contribution. He has inspired youngsters through his social work. We are inviting all the ministers, actors and others to attend the award ceremony. We are going to have three programmes in the city after November 1 within 10 days,” said the CM.

Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar, Ragavendhra Rajkumar and director Amoghvarsha visited the Palace Grounds to check on the preparations for the events.

The Gandhadagudi pre-release event, ‘Puneeth Parva’, is to be held at the Palace Grounds on October 21. The stage is ready, and seating arrangements are in place for more than 5,000 people. More than five lakh fans of the late actor are expected to participate in the event. The late actors’ posters have been put up around the stage.

Arrangements have been made for dinner and hotel rooms for the fans coming from far away. All Kannada actors, directors, producers and technicians will participate in the event.

Artists are designing the Puneeth Rajkumar posters.

There will also be a dance performance by Sandalwood artistes, which will last for about four-and-half hours. Many actors and actresses, including Shivarajkumar, Dance King Prabhudeva, and ‘Mohaka Taare’ Ramya will pay homage to Appu through dance.

Celebrities from the film industry including Ananth Nag, Kamal Haasan, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Arjun Sarja, Surya, Rana Daggubatti, Sudeep, Yash, Ramesh Aravind and other stars are likely to participate in the event. The preparations for the event are being overseen by Ashwini Puneethrajkumar, Raghavendrarajkumar, movie director Amoghvarsha and others.

Gandhadagudi, a docu-drama, is all set for release on October 28.

Gandhadagudi is about exploring nature along with director Amogavarsha. The two travel to an island in Karnataka and talk about the ecosystem. The movie is a docu-drama and also the late actor’s dream project. It is all set for a grand release on October 28.