After fan outcry, Twitter restores verified status to late Puneeth Rajkumar’s account

About a week ago, fans of late Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar were shell-shocked when they saw that the actor’s verified status on his Twitter page had been revoked on account of inactivity of the account. Enraged at this move, they quickly jumped to action and began bombarding the social media platform with requests to restore the blue-tick verified status and memorialize the late actor’s page. Yuvarathnaa director Santhosh Ananddram was at the forefront of this, along with fans who tweeted with # MemorializeAPPUOnTwitter and # RestoreVerificationForAPPU. Their pleas have been heeded and, as of today, the late Power Star’s page stands verified again. Fans, of course, are beyond thrilled.

Puneeth Rajkumar passed away on October 29 last year, moments after sending out his last tweet, in which he wished the team of Bhajarangi 2, which was his brother Shiva Rajkumar’s film, all the best as it made its way to screens. The actor, who was considered one of the most health conscious in Sandalwood and often shared glimpses from his awe-inspiring workouts, tragically succumbed to a massive cardiac arrest. The actor was fairly active on social media, so the inactivity in the last 7-8 months is likely to have triggered an automatic response on Twitter in revoking the verified status.

But then, as they say, all is well that ends well and the verified status is back now. But that is not the only good news for Puneeth fans. This year, they will get to see him onscreen two more times. In August, Lucky Man, in which he played an extended cameo as ‘god’ will release in movie halls. The makers have not yet confirmed a date, but have said that it will be in theatres this August. Thereafter, on the occasion of the late Power Star’s first death anniversary, his dream project, Gandhada Gudi will get a theatrical release. The docu-feature about the forests of Karnataka in which Puneeth is just himself will be in theatres on October 28.