The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Thousands visit Raj samadhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 13, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Thousands visit Raj samadhi

Staff Reporter

10,000 people were served rice and laddus by noon at Sri Kanteerava Studios

BANGALORE: Braving the scorching sun, people in thousands made a beeline to the samadhi of Kannada icon Rajkumar at the Kanteerava Studios on Thursday here to pay their tribute on his first death anniversary.

Amidst the slogans "Dr. Rajkumar-ge jai," and "Dr. Rajkumar Zindabad", nearly 40,000 fans offered flowers and did a "pradakshine" of the flower-bedecked samadhi.

Fans started pouring in early and by nine there was a two-km queue.

As the day progressed, there was no sign of the arrivals flagging: men, women and children turned up from different parts of the State.

Around 10.15 a.m. Rajkumar's family members, led by his widow Parvathamma, arrived and as per custom, his eldest son Shivarajkumar performed the puja.

He was accompanied by his siblings Raghavendra, Puneet, Poornima and Lakshmi. Ms. Parvathamma broke down towards the end of the rituals.

After the family left, several actors arrived to pay their respects to the man who ruled Kannada cinema for five decades. The first among them was Vishunavardhan, clad in spotless white kurta and sporting a white bandana. He was accompanied by wife Bharathi and actor Ravichandran. Other familiar faces included Jayanthi, B. Saroja Devi, Anu Prabhakar, Sundar Raj, Jai Jagadish, Umashree, Ashok, Doddanna, Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce president Tallam Nanjunda Shetty, music composer and singer C. Ashwath, Minister for Science and Technology Ramachandra Gowda, former minister and MLA P.G.R. Sindhia and Rajajinagar MLA N.L. Narendra Babu.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy visited the samadhi in the evening.

Eye donation

To mark the occasion, the Shivarajkumar Fans' Association organised an eye donation camp and the actor distributed certificates to 101 people who pledged to donate their eyes.

Rajkumar's family had arranged meals for the fans. By noon, nearly 10,000 people had had rice and laddus specially prepared for the occasion by Hallimane restaurant.

Security

In view of the large-scale violence that convulsed the city during the actor's funeral last year, the police had heightened security at the samadhi and other sensitive areas. Two platoons of Rapid Action Force, 30 platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police, 25 platoons of City Armed Reserve and 12,000 civil policemen were deployed.

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