The makers of Puneeth Rajkumar-Chethan Kumar's James held a prerelease event on Sunday, where the cast and crew including Priya Anand, Sharath Kumar, Srikanth Meka, Anu Prabhakar Mukherjee, music director Charan Raj, DOP J Swamy, and producer Kishore Pathikonda were in attendance. The entire Rajkumar family joined the team and made their presence felt at the event.
The evening was filled with performances to songs from James, laser shows, and a presentation of Puneeth's career. The fans kept on chanting 'Appu Lives on', and everyone on stage got emotional reminiscing about their experiences working with Puneeth. A special video message was sent by Megastar Chiranjeevi, who expressed his wish to watch James for Appu.
Shivarajkumar also mentioned about Puneeth Rajkumar being conferred with an honorary doctorate by the University of Mysore, and shared that he is the fourth person from the Rajkumar family to receive this award.
Vinay Rajkumar, Dheeren, Dhanya Ramkumar, and Yuvarajkumar also had a few words to share about their uncle, and expressed their wishes for the film. The guests present at the event conveyed their best wishes to the team, ahead of the film's release on March 17, which coincides with Puneeth's birth anniversary.