After the demise of matinee idol Dr Rajkumar on April 12, 2006, his fans continued to see the legendary actor in his son Puneeth Rajkumar. Puneeth debuted as a lead in ‘Appu’ (2002), and since then, most of his films received the same amount of love from the audience that his father’s movies enjoyed.
He was matinee icon Rajkumar's son, of course, but Puneeth Rajkumar was also the "Powerstar" who moved out of his father's long shadows to glitter in the arclights as Kannada cinema's most bankable, highly paid actor.