Senior journalist K. J. Kumar from Mysuru passed away this evening due to a heart attack at a private hospital. He was 74.
He was born on November 6, 1952, in Korandara Palya of Udupi district as the eldest son of Raghu Ram Shetty and Sharada. For about 56 years, he served as a major newspaper distributor in Mysuru and also worked as a journalist.
In 1969, he began his professional career as a journalist with the daily newspaper Vijaya, edited by his maternal uncle A. Ramanna, a former Legislative Council member and freedom fighter. Later, he served as the publisher and printer of Vijaya daily.
He subsequently worked as a film journalist with the weekly Sudha and the monthly film magazine Vijaya Chitra. From 1978, he worked as a journalist for the film magazine Roopathara for three decades. When the Bengaluru edition of Udayavani daily was launched in 1993, he served as the Mysuru correspondent for about one and a half decades. For the past one and a half decades, he had been handling the cinema section of Hosa Digantha daily.
Apart from the media field, he was also involved in the hotel industry and had established a hotel named Kuthira Mane in Saraswathipuram, Mysuru.
As a journalist in the Kannada film industry, K. J. Kumar had close associations with several prominent personalities, including Dr. Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Rajinikanth, Shashikumar, producers Dwarakish and Veeraswamy, and directors Puttanna Kanagal, Siddalingaiah and S. V. Rajendra Singh Babu.
Dignitaries have expressed condolences on the demise of senior journalist K. J. Kumar. Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce President Mrs. Jayamala, senior actress Hema Chaudhary, co-producer of the film Hosa Belaku Sadanand, and Mysore City Corporation member Nandeesh Preetham, son of former MLA Shankarlinge Gowda, along with others, have conveyed their condolences.
He is survived by his wife Usha, daughter Sunaya Shetty, sister and former city corporation member Pramila Prakash, and several relatives and friends.
