Prominent Kannada producer Ramu, who is the husband of film actress Malashri, passed away due to COVID-19-related complications on Monday, his family said. He was admitted to a private hospital for treatment in Bengaluru where he passed away. Ramu had produced many hit films such as Lockup Death, AK47 and Kalasipalya.
Actor Puneeth Rajkumar took to Twitter to pay his respects to the producer whose career spanned nearly three decades.
https://twitter.com/PuneethRajkumar/status/1386702192699080717?s=20
He was among a number of actors who took to social media to pay their respects. Condoling his death, former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy tweeted, "I am deeply saddened to hear that famous Kannada producer Ramu died of coronavirus infection." He said the death has caused a huge loss to the film industry.
Malashree and Ramu have two children. Kumaraswamy prayed to give peace to the departed soul and strength to the family to bear the loss.
The death comes at a time Karnataka and Bengaluru are reporting record a surge in COVID-19 cases. Karnataka reported 29,744 COVID-19 cases on April 26 including 16,545 cases in Bengaluru. A day prior to this, the state recorded 34,808 COVID-19 cases including 20,733 cases in Bengaluru, the highest single day spike in the city so far in the pandemic.