HUBBALLI: It's been 20 days since Karnataka lost its favourite movie star Puneeth Rajkumar. His friends, co-actors, fans and family members are yet to come to terms with Puneeth's death at the young age of 46.
For fans of Puneeth, it was like losing a member of their own family. The sudden rise in cases of cardiac arrests and suicides was testimony to the fact that they loved him so much and could not bear his departure.
The fans performed rituals and placed garlands on Puneeth's photos and even distributed free food to the poor in memory of the actor. Now going a step ahead, they are placing the photo of Puneeth along with Gods at their homes. Several photo frame makers in parts of North Karnataka say that there has been an increased demand for photo frames of Puneeth in the last two weeks.
"People are placing orders for Puneeth's photo frames in different shapes and sizes. Starting from Rs 200 and going till Rs 2,500, we have prepared a variety of frames in the last one week. Our shop has sold close to 200 frames of Puneeth. Many of these frames were used in condolence meetings, functions and for the recently held Rajyotsava celebrations. Many people are placing orders for frames which are usually used for framing photos of Gods and Goddesses and asking to put Puneeth's photo in it," said Santosh, an artist at a photo frame shop in Hosapete.
In Haveri too, shops are surprised over the orders of photo frames of Puneeth. "The man received much love and is being dearly missed by many. Be it any function, the organisers want to have a portrait of Puneeth. As he did shootings of many of his films in North Karnataka cities, people here have a lot of respect for him," said a shopkeeper from Haveri.