Leading South Indian movie star Rajkumar, who was kidnapped by the country's most wanted bandit six years ago, died Wednesday of a cardiac arrest, plunging his fans into mourning.
Rajkumar, 77, known as "Big Brother" to legions of fans, died at a private hospital in the southern city of Bangalore, his personal physician Ramana Rao said.
"He was suffering from heart disease for the last two years and was on treatment," Rao told AFP. "We tried our best to revive him when the attack happened but failed. He was just 12 days away from his 78th birthday."
The movie cult hero acted in more than 200 films, playing diverse roles ranging from tough cop to spurned lover, and won India's top national acting honour, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, in 1997.
As news of his death spread, more than 3,000 grief-stricken fans thronged Rajkumar's house in Bangalore where his body was bought from the hospital. Police erected barricades as the numbers swelled.
"Across the state police have gone on high alert to maintain order," said police spokesman Uday Shankar. "Additional policemen have been deployed on the Bangalore streets as a precautionary measure."
Later the actor's body was taken from his house to a British-style palace for public viewing as tens of thousands of fans joined the three-kilometer (1.8-mile) route.
In Bangalore shops and business establishments downed shutters soon after the news of his death. Mourning fans brought traffic to a standstill.
Rajkumar, a high-school dropout, was also a singer in the Kannada language spoken by the people of Karnataka state, of which the high-tech city of Bangalore is the capital.
Despite his huge box office success, Rajkumar, a strong advocate of Kannada, confined himself to the Kannada film world and was a champion of the state language.
Rajkumar hit the headlines when infamous bandit Koose Muniswamy Veerappan stormed into the film star's farmhouse and abducted him in July 2000.
The sandalwood smuggler kept him in the forest for 109 days before freeing him in exchange for a reportedly substantial ransom.
The kidnapping by Veerappan, who was wanted by police in more than 100 murders, gripped the nation and brought rioting fans out on to the street in protest. Veerappan was shot dead by police in October 2004.
The Karnataka government plans to give the film star a state funeral.
Rajkumar, whose real name was Mutturaju Singanalluru Puttaswamayya, was "discovered" at a bus depot by director HLN Simha, who signed him as a full fledged hero for the film 'Bedara Kannappa' in the 1950s.
That role put Rajkumar, whose father was also in the theatre, on the road to stardom.
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