Appu songs reverberate around Maharaja’s Grounds Young crowds cheer and dance at jam-packed venue

Mysore/Mysuru: Delayed by two days, Yuva Dasara got off to a colourful start at the sprawling Maharaja’s College Grounds last evening. True to its name, the event attracted thousands of youths. As the performance began, there was little place for movement as the entire Grounds was jam-packed.

As planned by the organisers, the inaugural day was dedicated to Dr. Puneeth Rajkumar and the show was inaugurated by the late actor’s wife Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar in the presence of Raghavendra Rajkumar, Vinay Rajkumar and Dheeran Ramkumar.

The political class present during the inauguration included District Minister S.T. Somashekar, Mayor Shivakumar, MP Pratap Simha, MLA L. Nagendra and MLC C.N. Manjegowda. Deputy Commissioner Dr. Bagadi Gautham was also present.

Flower petals were showered on the portrait of Puneeth Rajkumar and his contributions were silently remembered. The day was called ‘Appu Namana’ where many of his hit songs were performed. Well-known names in the music industry like Gurukiran, Vijay Prakash, Kunal Ganjawala and Anuradha Bhat performed and thoroughly thrilled the audience who leapt with joy as they heard Appu’s songs.

The evening began with a Kodava cultural dance performed by the students of Cauvery College, Gonikoppa and was continued with the performance of a dance troupe from Mysuru. Many dances of Appu films were performed.

The icing on the cake was TV star anchor Anushree, who took over the responsibility of conducting the programme in her typical style, smile and catchy dialogues. On many occasions, she mentioned that Appu was still being seen and experienced on stage and off stage. “Actually, it is ‘Appu Sambhrama’ and not just ‘Appu Namana’ and today we are celebrating his presence,” she said and the audience cheered her.

Performers from ‘Yede Thumbi Haaduvenu’ team, actor Vasishta Simha, Bhavana and Ibrahim from ‘Dance Karnataka Dance’ fame, Raghavendra Rajkumar and Kavya and team sang almost all the hit songs from Puneeth movies amidst thundering applause.

The star attraction of the evening was the performance by Gurukiran, Vijay Prakash and Kunal Ganjawala. They performed to the songs enacted by Puneeth in his movies through which he became a household name, starting from his first movie till the last one before his untimely demise.