'He valued every voice in the room.' In an emotional letter, Dunzo bids goodbye to Kannada star Puneeth Rajkumar

Puneeth Rajkumar, who was known as the Kannada cinema's reigning star, the youngest of the five children of thespian and matinee idol Dr Rajkumar, passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest on Friday in Bengaluru. He was 46.

The actor was also lovingly called 'Appu' and 'Power Star' by his fans and he was associated with the silver screen since he was a child. The news of his sudden demise as come as a shock to many who mourned the star's death. On Friday, Dunzo, a 24x7 delivery app that delivers anything to your doorstep shared the fine moments spent with the actor who recently starred in the brand's latest ad in Kannada.

In a letter, the delivery brand recalled the actor's warmth, humbleness and his welcoming nature. "He took no time in becoming one of us without any airs of a movie star. Whether it was personally receiving us from the waiting room at his office, or constantly asking '"would you like any more take?' or excitedly claiming that there's 'nothing like filter coffee pa!', this man's warmth and humility was truly endearing," Dunzo said in a post on Twitter.


The brand further reminisced how Puneeth's eyes would spark when he spoke about his parents, children and films.

"Over the many meetings, shoots and zoom calls, we noticed that his eyes sparkled on three occasions: When he spoke about his parents, when he spoke about his children, and when he spoke about film-making. His family, his films and his fans were his pride and joy," the post further read.


The brand also shared how passionate Puneeth was about his work. During their last shoot with Puneeth, the actor had showed the brand a few glimpses of his upcoming projects, looking for feedback. "Ever curious, he valued every voice in the room," Dunzo said in the statement.

"Two days ago, we did our last shoot with him, he was bubbling with excitement for his next few films. He showed us the rushes, keenly seeking our opinion about his cinematic babies, while passionately relating tales of the various sites he had visited for his research," the post said.
The demise of Puneeth took the entire country by shock and several popular actors from Bollywood and South film industry including Dhanush, Mahesh Babu, Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Abhishek Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, among others, have expressed their condolences. Telugu superstar Nandamuri Balakrishna and dancer/ choreographer/director Prabhudeva arrived in Bengaluru on Saturday and paid their last respects to the actor.

According to reports, Balakrishna could not control his tears and hugged and consoled Shivarajkumar, Puneeth's elder brother.

Prabhudeva was also in tears while paying his last respects. The late actor will be cremated on Saturday evening in Bengaluru with full state honour.

His mortal remains were shifted to the stadium for public viewing, where a large number of fans gathered to get one last view of their favourite actor. A heavy police force has been deployed at the stadium to control the crowd.