Google paid tribute to revered Kannada singer-actor Rajkumar with a doodle on his 88th birth anniversary.
Born as Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Muthuraju in 1929 at Gajanur, he was renamed later as Rajkumar to better suit his silver screen persona. Widely acclaimed as a method actor, he was trained in Carnatic music and had lent his voice to hundreds of songs in a career spanning over four decades.
In 2000, he was in the news after the actor was kidnapped by notorious dacoit Veerappan from his farm house at Gajanur, Karnataka. He was released after 108 days.
Rajkumar had received many awards for his work including two National Awards and one for best playback for the song “Naadamaya”. Among other many accolades, the late actor was awarded with the Padma Bhushan in 1983 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1995.
Some of his best works include Ranadheera Kanteerava, Sampathige Saval, Kaviratna Kalidasa, Jedara Bale and Gowri, among others. Rajkumar died of cardiac arrest at his residence in Bengaluru in 2006.