Puneeth Rajkumar: A long, eventful journey as child actor to Power Star of Kannada film industry

In the Kannada cinema industry, star Puneeth is fondly known as Appu, a nickname given to him by his fans after the release of Appu in 2002 which marked his entry in Sandalwood as a lead actor. The protagonist goes by the name of Appu in this eponymous debut film directed by Tollywood director Puri Jagannath. The film was a box-office hit. Though he acted in several films as a child artiste alongside his father and Kannada's iconic actor Rajkumar, Puneeth made his own mark on the film industry and proved a worthy successor to his father. He was lead actor in 29 Kannada films.

Born in Chennai, as a child he was known as Lohith. He was the youngest of Rajkumar's three sons Shiva Rajkumar, also a well-known actor, and Raghavendra Rajkumar, who is an actor and a producer.

Many people are unaware that Puneeth made his first appearance on screen when he was only six months. Along with his father Rajkumar, he appeared in the 1976 film Premada Kanike which was a box-office hit.

Puneeth Rajkumar won a National award for best child artist for his role in N Lakshminarayan's film Bettada Hoovu, which is based on Shirley L Arora's novel 'What then, Raman?' Puneeth played the of naive Ramu in the film.

Everyone knows Puneeth, like his father Dr. Rajkumar, was a talented professional vocalist. He recorded his debut song, "Baana Daariyalli Soorya," when he was six years, composed by well-known musician T.G. Lingappa. It was taken from the 1982 film Bhagyavantha.

Puneeth won his first Karnataka State Film Award for Best Child Artist in 1982-83 for the film Chalisuva Modagalu.

He appeared in many films as a child actor. His most notable performances include Vasantha Geetha (1980), Bhagyavantha (1981), Chalisuva Modagalu (1982), Eradu Nakshatragalu (1983), Bhakta Prahaladha, Yarivanu and Bettada Hoovu (1985).

Known among his fans as Power Star, Puneeth appeared as a lead actor in commercially successful films such as Appu (2002), Abhi (2003), Veera Kannadiga (2004), Mourya (2004), Aakash (2005), Ajay (2006), Arasu (2007), Milana (2007), Vamshi (2008), Raam (2009), Jackie (2010), Hudugaru (2011), Raajakumara (2017), and Anjani Putra (2017).

He was the highest-paid actors in the Kannada cinema. On the work front, Puneeth Rajkumar's next film was to be a psychological thriller drama titled Dvita. He completed shoot for his movie James recently.