Trademark song: Watch the late Puneeth Rajkumar burn up the dance floor in James intro song

When the team of the late Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar’s James announced that they would release his intro song, Trademark, fans were beyond thrilled. What they did, though, was put out a lyrical video with only fleeting glimpses of the actor, with the guest stars, Chandan Shetty, Rachita Ram, Sreeleela and Ashika Ranganath, beside composer Charanraj, taking up a lot of screen space. This, of course, had fans wondering if Puneeth had indeed shot for the song, which was revealed when the film came out on his birthday (March 17). The song had gone viral in no time.

Trademark, written by directed Chethan Kumar, was one of the big surprises that the filmmaker had in store for fans of the late actor. Although it did feel as if Puneeth had not shot for the entire song, necessitating filling up with the guest stars, there was enough footage of the Power Star burning up the dance floor to Shekar master’s choreography. The film had recently completed 100 days at the box office, and as part of the celebration, the makers released the full video of the intro song online.

James, which was Puneeth’s first collaboration with Bharjari maker Chethan, is his last commercial outing as a solo hero. The actor passed away following a massive cardiac arrest on October 29 last year. At the time, he had not completed the film, so the team was forced to resort to CGI for some scenes, and a body double for action blocks. Since he had not dubbed for his role, Chethan got Puneeth’s brother, Hattrick Hero Shivarajkumar to do the needful. Subsequently, though, the makers incorporated Puneeth’s own voice, when a Hyderabad-based audio engineering company’s efforts to stitch together his track from clippings of earlier films, interviews, TV outings, etc., was successful.

The film reunited Puneeth with his Raajakumara co-star Priya Anand and had a massive ensemble cast, including Sarath Kumar, Srikanth Meka, Mukesh Rishi, Rangayana Raghu, Shine Shetty, Chikkanna, etc., with Shivarajkumar and Raghavendra Rajkumar doing brief cameos as well.