Thousands of grieving fans filled Bengaluru's Kanteerava Stadium on Friday to pay their last respects to Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar, who died at the age of 46 after a heart attack. His last rites will be performed with full state honours, state minister R Ashoka said.
Puneeth Rajkumar had passed away after suffering a massive cardiac arrest while working out in the gym in the morning. He was admitted to Vikram Hospital in Bengaluru.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai was present at the hospital to check on the 46-year-old actor. Sources also state that Puneeth's elder brother and actor Shivarajkumar and Yash were there at the premises.
The news was confirmed by Sathish, the personal manager of Puneeth and other sources related to the actor.
The demise of Puneeth has taken the entire South Indian film industry by shock as the actor was very recently seen promoting Shivarajkumar's 'Bajrangi 2'. The actor had even tweeted wishing the film luck today morning.
On the acting front, he was last seen in 'Yuvarathnaa', directed by Santhosh Ananddram. He had recently wrapped shooting for Chethan Kumar's 'James', alongside Priya Anand. He was about to begin shooting for 'Dvitva', directed by Pawan Kumar from November 1.
In a career spanning two decades as a hero, Puneeth, fondly called Appu and Power Star, acted in several successful films and had one of the largest fanbases in the Kannada film industry.
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