Actor Sanchari Vijay laid to rest with police honours

Bengaluru: National Award winning Sandalwood actor Sanchari Vijay who died after suffering serious head injuries in a road accident, was laid to rest on Tuesday with police honours at Panchanahalli in Kadur taluk of Chikkamagaluru district. Earlier, his body was kept at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bengaluru, from 6 am to 10 am to allow his friends and admirers to pay their last respects. Later, his mortal remains were taken to his birth place Panchanahalli.

Vijay, who met with an accident on June 12, was declared brain-dead on Monday. He was 38. He had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Apollo Hospital here. The actor's family decided to donate his organs in light of the irreversible brain damage.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa earlier in the day took to Twitter to appreciate Vijay's family for donating his organs. "National Award winning actor Sanchari Vijay's funeral will be held with full state police honors. With my condolences, I also express my gratitude to his family, who donated his organs," tweeted the Chief Minister's office.

The actor was laid to rest at a farm owned by his friend Raghu in Panchanahalli as per Lingayat customs.

Many Sandalwood celebrities like Sudeep, Shivarajkumar, Dhananjaya, Ninasam Sathish, director Guru Deshpande, Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar, among many others paid their last respect to the mortal remains of Vijay.

Expressing her condolences, actress Parul Yadav said, "A great experience while working with him. While shooting for the film, he would just focus on work and sit quietly in a corner and had no airs about being a National Award winner. Very simple person, and towards the end when I got to know that he is a National Award winner, I felt bad for him and went and initiated a conversation. Such a nice person, gone too soon. My condolences to his family in this tough time. "

Late on Monday night, doctors had announced that Vijay was braindead. "Vijay's apnea tests were performed at 12.25 pm and 7.50 pm today (Monday) and are found to be positive. This means that there is irreversible complete damage to the brain. The next step is the retrieval of organs and then transplant procedures will follow," the hospital had said in a bulletin. Vijay's elder brother Virupaksha and younger brother Siddesh gave a written consent for the organ donation while his cousin Srikanth N. S was the witness.

Subsequently, Jeevasarthakathe, a State government appointed body to oversee the implementation of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994, informed the police and the permission was obtained.

His two kidneys, liver, heart valves and corneas were retrieved. He became the first Sandalwood celebrity to donate all organs, though many actors have been part of eye donation campaigns and even donated too.

"Very very disheartening to accept that Sanchari Vijay breathed his last. Met him a couple of times just bfr this lockdown,,,, all excited about his next film,, that's due for release. Very sad. Deepest Condolences to his family and friends. RIP," Kiccha Sudeep said on Twitter.

Actor Vijay, who was associated with the Usire (Breathe) team to provide oxygen for Covid patients, was also doing his bit for the needy by amplifying information about Covid resources through his social media pages.

Vijay had met with an accident while riding pillion on a motorcycle with his friend Naveen on June 12. They had set out to buy medicines when their bike skidded due to rains and hit a pole at J. P. Nagar's 7th Phase. Naveen also has suffered a leg fracture, while Vijay was taken for surgeries of the brain and leg at the hospital.

Vijay, a very versatile theatre actor from the Sanchari Theatre, a culture centre and unique theatre, which is also popular as an elegant drama troupe. Later he made his film debut with Rangappa Hogbitna in 2011. He then made headlines winning National Award for Best Actor for his role as transgender in Naanu Avanalla...Avalu in 2015. Dasavala, Oggarane, Harivu, Killing Veerappan and Nathicharami are some of the other films he starred in.

The actor also gave his voice for the Aadaadta Aayushya (This Life at Play), audiobook, which is the autobiography of Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad, for the first time. The audiobook runs into about 15 hours.