Karnataka Ratna event: Rajinikanth reveals why he didn't attend Puneeth Rajkumar's funeral

Late Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar was conferred with Karnataka’s highest civilian award the ‘Karnataka Ratna’ posthumously on Tuesday. Film stars like Rajinikanth and Jr NTR were also present at the event as the Chief Guests along with the state's Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. The award was received by Puneeth's wife Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar, in the presence of his actor brother Shivarajkumar and other family members.

Rajinikanth got teary-eyed during the event as he remembered the late actor and called him a "God's child." A video shared by CM Basavaraj Bommai's Twitter account saw the Kabali star saying, "That four-year-old is still etched in my mind. Lakhs of people came to pay their respects to Appu after he died. Why did they come? They came because of his great character."

'Puneeth's soul is with us': Rajinikanth

"In Kali Yuga, Appu (Puneeth) is like Markandeya, Prahlada, Nachiketa. He’s God’s child. That child lived among us for some time. He played with us and made us laugh. And again, that child went back to God. His Aatma (soul) is with us," he noted.

The veteran actor further revealed why he didn't attend Puneeth Rajkumar's funeral last year. Opening up about his bad health condition, Rajinikanth stated that he had undergone an operation and was in the intensive care unit (ICU) when the James actor died. He further added that nobody told him about Puneeth's demise for three days, adding,

"Even if I was healthy at the time, I wouldn't have travelled to Bengaluru to see the mortal remains of Puneeth." "I would never want to lose that child’s smiling face from my memory," he concluded.

Considered the Kannada cinema's reigning star, Puneeth, the youngest of five children of thespian and matinee idol Dr Rajkumar, died of a cardiac arrest on October 29, 2021, at the age of 46. Popularly known as Appu, he made his debut on screen when he was just six months old and went on to win a national award as a child artiste for the film Bettada Hoovu. 

Image: Twitter/@vamsikaka