BENGALURU: Kannada action star Chiranjeevi Sarja died after a massive cardiac arrest in the city on Sunday. He was 39. The last rites will be held at 11 am on Monday at the farmhouse of his brother and actor Dhruva Sarja near Kanakapura. The untimely death of the actor has shocked his fans and the entire film industry. Chiranjeevi Sarja, son of Vijay Kumar and Ammanni, was born into a family of popular film personalities.
Film industry mourns action star
Chiranjeevi Sarja is the grandson of veteran actor Shakthi Prasad and nephew of popular South Indian actor Arjun Sarja. Chiranjeevi is survived by his wife Meghana Raj, whom he married a few years ago and is four months pregnant. Meghana is the daughter of veteran actors Sundar Raj and Pramila Joshai.
Chiranjeevi complained of chest pain and breathlessness. He even suffered convulsions and was taken to Sagar Apollo Hospital in Jayanagar on Sunday in an unresponsive state. He had suffered three cardiac arrests by then.
According to a Apollo Hospital statement, the actor was brought to its Jayanagar unit in an unresponsive state around 2.20 pm on Sunday and he was immediately shifted to the emergency room for treatment. “On examination, he was found unresponsive with absent carotid pulse, cold peripheries and bilateral dilated pupils. Hence, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was started according to the latest Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) protocol. Resuscitation was continued till 3.48 pm.
During this time, intravenous medications, inotropes and advanced airway was used, pulse was achieved three times (ROSC), later continued to be asystolic. He was declared dead at 3.48 pm,” Dr Yatheesh Govindaiah, Unit Head of Apollo Hospitals, Jayanagar, said. As per protocol, the actor was tested for Covid-19 and the results returned negative. Chiranjeevi made his debut with ‘Vaayuputra’. He worked in films 22 films including ‘Chiru’, ‘Dandam Dashagunam’, ‘Kempe Gowda’, ‘Varadanayaka’, ‘Aatagara’, ‘Singhaa’ and ‘Khakhi’. He was last seen on the silver screen in the film ‘Shivarajuna’.
He had also signed up for the films ‘Raja Marthanda’, ‘April’, ‘Ranam’, ‘Kshatriya’ and ‘Dheeram’, which are in different stages of production. Popular film personalities including Tara, Shivarajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar, Sumalatha Ambareesh, Upendra and Priyanka, Jaggesh, Darshan, Sudeep, Abhishek, Srujan Lokesh, Prajwal Devaraj, music directors Gurukiran, and V Manohar paid their last respects at the hospital and at the Sarja residence in Basavanagudi.