Sporting a power punch

If one were to scour through Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar’s itinerary for the past couple of months, it would read, Kabbadi, Futsal, more Futsal, and now Badminton…. Interspersed with film shooting of course.

Annavaru’s youngest son, popular Kannada star Puneeth Rajkumar is one of the most popular actors on the Kannada screen, but with an itinerary like that, he could just as easily be a sports star! Personally, too, he is as sporty as they come, and has been associated with sports in various capacities — As owner of the Bangalore Premier Futsal team, ambassador for Kabaddi and now brand ambassador of the recently-launched Karnataka Alps, a franchisee of the Celebrity Badminton League Season 1.

The actor and badminton player says, “I have been playing badminton since I was young, for 15 to 16 years. I have always admired Prakash Padukone. I used to play for my club, and always enjoyed a good game,” says Puneeth.

Karnataka Alps is a franchise of Celebrity Badminton League 2016, that will see the best of Sandalwood taking to the raquet and volley against each other. Owned by Justin Samuel James, director of Alpha Digitech Company, it is also co-owned Tamil actress Sangavi Kavya Ramesh.

Actor Diganth will be the captain of Karataka Alps, with Yogesh, Indrajit Lankesh, Ravi Chetan, Arjun, Jagadish, Sangavi, Andrita Ray, Kavitha Lankesh, Sindhu Lokanath and Krishi. And one might even see the Power Star smash a few across court.

Puneeth will (fingers-crossed) play too, “I do hope I can play though I sincerely wish I don’t embarrass myself,” laughs the down-to-earth Piscean.

The Kannada star loves playing football too, a sport he has been playing since childhood… He follows Manchester United as a complete fan and this owner of the Bengaluru futsal team was thrilled to bits to have a legend like Paul Scholes as a Marquee star in the team.

“Football stars, like Paul Scholes, Ronaldinho, Salgado, Ryan Giggs came to India, and did a great job and they also saw such a large fan following. We are sure next time, it will be even more better. I got to take pictures with Paul Scholes, Ronaldinho, but as their schedule was tight, I didn’t get to interact much,” says Puneeth.

The adventure sports lovers just finished deep sea diving in Australia where he was shooting for Rajkumara, and found time to visit some dive sites. Affable and extremely approachable, one might mull over the tough act he has to follow — his legendary father Dr Rajkumar’s legacy and his enterprising mother, and brothers have imprinted their influence on him… but he is unfazed, “My mother is my backbone. There is nothing I could have done without her. The films she has produced and her own legacy too, is amazing (you should know).”

But being amid such huge stars in their own right makes Puneeth even more grounded, “Nothing is hard to follow, coming from a family like ours is a blessing — people love us so much. There is nothing hard about it. One just needs to do good, be honest and give their best,” says the star who is currently working on two films.

“Dodmane Huduga releases next month and Rajakumara where he stars with debutante Priya Anand. Other than that there are a couple of scripts that I am looking at, nothing concrete,” he says, adding, “In the past few years, the quality of films and the audience expectation have both improved greatly. In terms of other industries, I don’t have anything planned but am always open if something comes along.”

Every actor has a dream role. But the smiling actor reveals almost grudgingly, “I am a Piscean, so those dream roles, they keep changing every minute and everywhere there are inspirations one gets inspired by.”

The family man loves spending time with his daughters, Drithi and Vandhita. It’s weekends with the family and he is categoric, “My family time is very important to me. Nothing comes between that. My daughters are simple children, right now more concerned about their education.” His wife Ashwini, he agrees, is someone he relies on for critique, “She is my biggest critic… which helps me get things into perspective too.”