Stars, politicians, fans pay tribute at Rajkumar Memorial

When there’s something to do with the late cine idol Rajkumar, the film industry and the entire state ensures they make it a point attend in full force. While the inauguration of the brand new Rajkumar Memorial, held earlier in the day on Friday, saw the likes of Tamil superstar Rajinikanth and Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi make their presence felt alongside Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the celebrations continued well into the evening with the biggest of Kannada stars dancing to the icon’s innumerable number of super hit tunes.Here are the highlights…
At the inauguration, Rajini fondly recalled memories of his friendship with the Kannada legend. “The only autograph I have is that of Rajkumar. I got it when I was in school,” he declared. Rajinikanth, also created his own tale about the star: that Brahma floated a hani (raindrop) in a cloud. “The cloud went around the state and everyone was eager to know where that raindrop would fall. It fell in Gajanur in Karnataka and became famous as Rajkumar.”
Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi recalled an incident from his career that highlighted a special quality of the star. “One of my Telugu films had a great run in Hubballi, known to be a stronghold of Kannada films.Rajkumar, after watching my film, congratulated me and I was touched by his simplicity. I have been greatly inspired by him,” he said.
As part of his speech at the inauguration, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that he would pledge his eyes. Recalling how Rajkumar would always say ‘Namma kaadinavaru (he is from my village)’ whenever he met him, the CM said he would follow in the footsteps of the thespian and donate his eyes. Rajkumar (Gajanur) and Siddaramaiah (Siddaramayyana Hundi) are from Chamarajanagar.
Fans and guests at the mega event cheered on as stars shook a leg or two on stage to everygreen Rajkumar hits. Ambareesh and Sumalatha, Ramesh Aravind, Shruti, Arjun Sarja, Srimurali, Vijay Raghavendra, Hariprriya and Meghana Raj and, of course, Shivarajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar had the audience cheering on with delight. Even Raghavendra Rajkumar made it to the stage, despite being challenged owing to the illness he has just recovered from.
There is no denying that the Kannada film industry does have its share of camps, and that superstars Sudeep and Darshan clearly belong to the other. It is also true that every actor and star on stage on the day did take time off to be a part of the mega event held in honour of a legend that the entire state respects. The duo did keep aside all differences, took time off and completed Sandalwood’s ‘one-big-family’ image. However, news about the two planning to dance on stage together to a song may have raised expectations so much that when they chose to come in separately, and decided only to smile and wave instead, it seems to have disappointed a section of the fans.