Through the life of a legend
Honour bestowed
It was time for a walk down the memory lane at the ‘Dr Rajkumar Souharda Prashasti’ award ceremony, held recently.
An award, popularly known as the Appaji Souharda Prashasti, is given to members of the Kannada film fraternity. The award includes a cash prize of Rs one lakh and a memento.
This year, singer P B Srinivas, who is known as the voice of Rajkumar, actress Ranganayaki and director Dattaraj were bestowed the honour.
The event began with an instrumental music recital in the background. Raghavendra Rajkumar’s song came next and complemented the ambience.
After receiving the award, Srinivas described music as his mother tongue and said that he enjoyed singing for Rajkumar.He had even penned a song that described the relationship he shared with Rajkumar and sang it for the audience.
“I’m extremely happy to have received this award. I will never be able to forget this day in my life,” he said. Ranganayaki took pride in receiving the award and to have worked with a person like Rajkumar. She recalled how the actor used to call her his sister and broke down.
Dattaraj thanked the Rajkumar family to have considered him for the award.“I wanted to retire from directing at one point of time. If it wasn’t for
Dr Rajkumar and his family, I would have probably not made many films,” he recalled.
The Rajkumar family was present at the event and actors like Tara, Ramkumar, Shivaram, Jayamala and Ramya graced the occasion. “We have given awards to our favourite people. We hope to continue this,” said Shivarajkumar. The much-awaited book ‘Dr Rajkumar: The Person Behind The Personality’ was also released on the occasion. Puneeth Rajkumar, with the help of his family, has contributed to the collection.
“This book was my dream. It was a thrilling experience to have worked on it for about eight years. I wanted to show my affection for him as an actor and a father,” said Puneeth.
The book depicts the actor’s personal life and his career in about 300 pages and has rare photographs of him. The Rajkumar family said they will contribute all the money earned from the sales of this book to various Kannada schools in Karnataka, to educate children with fewer privileges.
“This book has an attractive and unique title. The story is beautifully told with rare pictures of my father,” said Shivarajkumar.
DHNS
