Karnataka Ratna Puneeth Rajkumar lives forever

On Tuesday evening, the

Puneeth Namana

event held at Palace Grounds saw noted dignitaries, politicians and actors and technicians not just from Karnataka but outside the state too drop by to pay their respects to late Puneeth Rajkumar at a special memorial ceremony. The highlight of the event was when Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced that the late Power Star would be posthumously conferred with the Karnataka Ratna honour.

The event also had music performances where people sang evergreen songs from Puneeth's films as well as had people going on stage and sharing their memories and tributes for him. Tamil star Vishal, who had flown down specially for the event, requested Puneeth's family the opportunity to continue the education and support the 1,800 students that the Power Star had been nurturing.

Ashwini

Puneeth

Rajkumar was present at the event, along with her family members, where she graciously acknowledged everyone's tributes to Puneeth. Puneeth's brothers

Shivarajkumar

and Raghavendra Rajkumar too spoke at the event. Shivarajkumar, who shared how Puneeth is an inspiration to everyone including him, sang a couple of lines of Puneeth's favourite song Main Shayar Toh Nahi.

Raghavendra

got emotional and broke down on stage as he said he tried his hardest to put up a brave front till then. He also shared how Puneeth might have entered the world as their youngest sibling, but he left akin to an elder sibling setting an ideal path of how one should lead life.
Ashwini makes her social media debut
On Tuesday, Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar made her debut on social media, where she shared her first post, which was a heartfelt letter of gratitude to Puneeth's fans, who have been following his footstep and have registered for organ donation and also have bestowed a lot of love on the family through this tough period.

Some hiccups at the event
There were some actors like Karunya Ram who were denied entry at the event, despite having invitation letters from the organisers. Some actors complained about not being let into the venue hall and being spoken to rudely. A video of Darshan being stopped at the event entrance went viral on social media.