March 17 marks the birth anniversary of the late Puneeth Rajkumar.

Puneeth hailed from a filmy background, and he was the fifth child of matinee idol Dr Rajkumar and Parvathamma Rajkumar.

Puneeth's first lead role was in 2002's Appu. Working over 3 Decades, He has won one National Film Award, Four Karnataka State Film Awards, Six Filmfare Awards South and Five SIIMA Awards. He was conferred with the Doctorate by Mysuru University. The Karnataka Government conferred the state's highest civilian award, Karnataka Ratna, to Puneeth Rajkumar on 1 November 2022, posthumously

On 29 October 2021, Puneeth complained of uneasiness to his wife Ashwini and died on his way to a hospital in Bengaluru at the age of 46. The reason for his death was declared to be cardiac arrest.

His body was kept for public view at Kanteerava stadium for 2 days and was reportedly attended by more than 30 Lakh people and was one of the largest funeral gatherings in Indian history of funerals. He was buried alongside his parents at Sree Kanteerava Studios in Bangalore.

He donated his eyes following a pledge by his father Rajkumar, that he along with all his family members will donate their eyes after death.

After the eye initiative of Puneeth Rajkumar, there was a sudden increase in eye donations across Karnataka that gave a boost and awareness amongst the people of the State. After November 2021, there is a huge number of one lakh eye donations registered in the last 10 months alone.

Large-hearted, charitable to a fault, and a guiding light for the entire Kannada film industry, Puneeth’s death was a loss beyond any measure to the Kannada film industry

To mark Rajkumar's birthday, Amazon Prime will stream his documentary feature Gandhadagudi today (17-03-2023). The film, Rajkumar's collaboration with wildlife photographer and filmmaker Amoghavarsha, celebrates the beauty of Karnataka and also explores Rajkumar's own heritage.

The smile will never cease to enthral his devotees in Kannada cinema who hero-worship Puneeth Rajkumar beyond any human description of adulation. The legend lives.