Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, superstars of south Indian film industry and Bollywood, besides thousands of frenzied fans and political leaders from across India yesterday paid their tributes to veteran Kannada actor-turned-politician M H Ambareesh who died following a cardiac arrest.
Thousands of fans queued up outside the Kanteerava Stadium grounds in the Karnataka capital Bengaluru, where the 66-year-old’s body was kept in state since early in the day.
Ambareesh was a dedicated parliamentarian, Naidu tweeted.
“Sad to hear about the sudden demise of Ambareesh. He was not only a great actor but also a dedicated parliamentarian. My condolences to his family, friends and followers,” Naidu said.
Modi said the actor will be remembered for his memorable performances and extensive contribution to politics.
The rebel actor, who died at a private hospital in Bengaluru late on Saturday, was described by Modi as “a strong voice for Karnataka’s welfare, at the state and central level”.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi said his party has lost a valuable member.
“He was a famous son of Karnataka, whose work as an actor and in politics, won him a huge following both in the state and across India.”
Ambareesh died at around 10.15pm after a massive cardiac arrest a couple of hours after he was taken to the Vikram Hospital following breathing trouble.
A former cabinet minister in the previous Congress government in Karnataka from May 2013 to June 2016 before then chief minister Siddaramaiah sacked him along with 13 other ministers in a major reshuffle, the Kannada star enjoyed huge respect across party and linguistic divide.
He was the federal minister of state for Information and Broadcasting in the first Congress-led government and a parliament member from Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, about 100km from here.
Ambaressh was also a member of the state legislature, representing Mandya and Srirangapatna assembly segments as a Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader.
Though the Congress leadership wanted Ambareesh to contest in the May 12 assembly elections, he declined on health grounds, saying he would not be able to do justice to the people as their public representative.
Tamil superstar Rajinikanth, multi-lingual actors Prakash Raj, Raadika Sarathkumar, Kannada actors Shiva Rajkumar, Puneeth Rajkumar, popular Telugu actor Chiranjeevi and several others from the south Indian film industry paid their homage to the actor.
“Grieved to learn of the passing of a colleague Ambareesh. Condolences and prayers,” Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan tweeted.
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit president B S Yeddyurappa and ministers from the JD-S-Congress cabinet also paid their respects.