Mysore/Mysuru: M.R. Subramanya (87), fondly called as ‘Paper Subbanna’ by his admirers, passed away at his residence in Cheluvamba Agrahara here early this morning owing to brief illness.

He leaves behind his daughter M.S. Nagashree, son M.S. Nagendra and a host of relatives and friends. His wife, Kamalamma, had predeceased him 15 years ago.

Last rites were held at the foot of Chamundi Hill this afternoon.

Subbanna, who used to sell newspapers of all languages including Rajasthani, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, at the Lansdowne building, was a familiar figure among visitors to shops in the landmark building.

A legend in his own profession, Paper Subbanna was recently honoured with MDJA Award-2023 by Mysuru District Journalists Association (MDJA) in recognition of his yeomen service for the past six decades.

Condoled: MDJA President S.T. Ravikumar (RK), MDJA Members, Mysuru District Newspaper Distributors Association President B. Suresh, General Secretary N.K. Sundar, Newspaper Agents Association President Suresh, General Secretary Ravi and Newspaper Distributors Welfare Association President Homdev have condoled the death of Paper Subbanna.

Star of Mysore had profiled Paper Subbanna on completion of 50 years as a newspaper distributor in Mysuru in June 2014 — Paper Subbanna, a legend in his own rights!

A legend in his own profession

M.R. Subramanya, popularly called by his admirers as ‘Paper Subbanna,’ was dedicated to journalism in his own kind by selling newspapers for nearly six decades in the heritage city, thus justifying the title given to him.

Born in Mysuru, Subbanna, who passed SSLC from Dalvoy School in city, took to distribution of newspapers and rendered a yeomen service to the field of journalism for the past 60 years.

After unsuccessfully launching ‘Chitralaya,’ a tabloid devoted to film industry in Bengaluru in 1963, Subbanna got into distributing newspapers, periodicals and books related to competitive examinations in all languages.

Later, Subbanna established an institution named Film Premier Association along with his friends and served as a reporter, critic, publisher and launched many programmes for the development of journalism.

After the collapse of the Lansdowne building, Subbanna ran a shop opposite Merchants’ Co-operative Bank on Jaganmohan Palace Road in city selling newspapers of all languages including Rajasthani, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, etc.

After failing to achieve the desired results through his tabloid, Subbanna published many novels under the banner of ‘Sahitya Gangotri’ and created awareness on reading Kannada books and also achieved the distinction of publishing ‘Jenugudu’ scripted by celebrated Tamil writer Shantha through which he became a household name after being recognised by the Union Government.

Subbanna plunged into Kannada Chaluvali in his fight for propagation of Kannada and played a major role in the agitation against dubbing of Kannada films into other languages in the company of A.N. Krishna Rao, M. Rama Murthy, T.R. Subba Rao, Beechi, Sheshagiri Rao, Veerakesari, Seetharama Shastry among others.

Besides being felicitated for his contributions to Kannada language, Subbanna was honoured by the Dasara Exhibition Committee in 1992, Ambarish Award in 1995 by Ambarish Fans’ Association and also honoured in 2006 by a group of littérateurs from K.R. Nagar Taluk.