HT Sangliana Pays Tribute to Annavaru
Bangalore, April 13 : Even three years after his demise, Kannada legendary actor Rajkumar lives in their hearts. Thousands of fans thronged Rajkumar memorial site at Kanteerava Studio here today to pay glowing tributes to their matinee idol on the occasion of the third death anniversary of Dr. Rajkumar.
Fans in large numbers kept streaming into the Studio from morning. By evening, over 10,000 fans had paid their tributes to their beloved Annavaru.
The thespian's wife Parvathamma Rajkumar arrived at the Samadhi at around 10am along with her sons Shivarajkumar, Raghavendra and Puneet and performed religious rituals.
Prominent Leaders who were present on the occasion included H T Sangliana, C K Jaffer Shariff , local MLA Narendra Babu and other dignitaries from film industry including Film Director KSL Swamy, writer K R Nagaraj and others. Actress Tara also visited the family and paid tributes to the legend.
There were several programmes organized on this occasion. Nadoja Rajkumar Adhyayana Peetha, Kannada University Hampi and Chitra Srujana Kala Samsthe had jointly organized a cultural programme 'Amara Kala Chetana Raj Ondu Nenapu' at Yavanika premises.
An eye donation camp besides several charity activities were also organised on the occasion by family members, fans and well-wishers. The Raj family also organised free lunch for the fans. The thespian's actor-sons hung around the place for a long while and interacted with the fans.
Dr Shivaji Ganeshan Memorial Trust of Karnataka organized a programme called Pushpanjali and Deepanjali, at Prakash Nagar. Dr K Bhujangashetty, actor Avinash, cine actress Malavika Avinash, Dr Madhusudan Babu, Rajeshwari, N Krishna, Dr Nataraj, president of Dr Shivaji Ganeshan Trust and others were present.
Speaking to mediapersons, the Raj family members expressed their dissatisfaction over the delay in the construction of the Raj memorial park. Though the government has sanctioned the amount and the land, work is yet to pick up speed, even though three years had passed since the actor's demise, they said. They pointed out that though the work began after the BJP government came into power, and that it is going on at snail's pace. They said though Raj might not be around physically, he still lived in the hearts of everyone.
The Rajkumar memorial is to come up at the 2.5-acre site where the actor's grave is also situated. The government has already sanctioned Rs11 crore for the memorial, which will include a modern cinema complex to screen the thespian's films, a gallery of Dr Rajkumar's pictures, a museum of the actor's memorabilia, a yoga hall, an open-air theatre, a park, a library and a lake.
