South India film music legend SP Balasubrahmaniyam is no more

By GS Rahakrishna

Sep 25, 2020
Bangalore: Legendary South Indian film play back singer S P S.P. Balasubrahmanyam passed away here this afternoon after prolonged illness and hospitalisation since August 5 last.

He was admited in MGM Hospital afterbreathing difficulties, even though he had recovered from Covid-19. His family procured lung specialists from London and Chicago but to no avail.

I had met him at Bangalore in February at a function where be remembered our meeting 33 years ago at a studio in Hyderabad and our interview for an English Magazine . “ I still have the clipping, Radhakrishna garu “ he had said as it was about a controversy about a song sung by him in aTelugu film.

74-year-old Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam also referred to as S. P. B. or Balu by his admirers in film and music industry, was a jovial and friendly person who did not hesitate even a second to pose for a selfie or snap. He was a multi talented personality – a musician, playback singer, music director, actor, dubbing artist and film producer, and also a writer par excellence.

For over a half century he dominated the Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam movies with his melodious and silky voice and other talents He did not agree with comments that he did not get opportunities in acting by the dynasty dominated Tamil, Kannada and Telugu film Industry. ”I am happy with recognition as singer, though I could have done better in acting as well” he had said modestly.

May be he was right .He made name and fame as a singer by recording over 40,000 songs in 16 Indian languages .He also holds the Guinness World Record for singing the highest number of songs by an individual singer . Actually he had sung one to five songs every day in a year over a stretches of five years . He stopped singing in films since 2015 but chose the small screen ( TV) programs . “ This change over gave me more rest and time to design my own songs , not necessarily for movies “ he had said in an interview last year.

His basket of trophies and awards , felicitations etc was always full. His house in Chennai and Hyderabad has roomful of trophies and award plaques.He is a recipient of highest civilian awards like Padma Shri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011).

He has garnered six National Film Awards for Best Male Playback Singer for his works in four different languages; Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi.

In all, SP bagged 25 Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Awards for his contributions to Telugu Cinema. His special love is for Telugu as he hailed from Konetampeta in erstwhile Tiruvallur district of Madras presidency but now in Nellore district of AP. He has two brothers and five sisters, including singer SP Sailaja. His son SP Charanjit is also a popular South Indian singer, actor and a producer .

His parents wanted him to be an ngineer and joined hi. To JNTU but he dropped out and joined a company in Chennai where he pursued his music interest by forming a light Music orchestra troupe with Ilayaraja and soon got noticed by reigning dons of film music world SP Kodanpani and Ghantasala. His journey there after never stopped till he breathed his last today.

Balu also has a huge bouquet of awards and trophies from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In addition, he garnered the Bollywood Filmfare Award, and six Filmfare Awards South. “ I go everywhere and to whoever calls me as I do not want to disappoint my admirers “ he says.

At the fag end of his career, Balu took to designing music programs, contests etc on TV, particularly the ETC which were hit throughout .Balu also acted in nearly six films.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM