I wanted to become a gazetted rank engineer which could fetch Rs 250 salary, a jeep with a chauffeur in the 1960s,” he had repeatedly said over the years. “It was never my desire to enter the film industry.
Born on June 4, 1946, in Nellore in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the film world was never in the mind of SPB, also fondly called ‘Balu’ by many of his friends such as music maestro Illayaraja.
For someone with no formal training in classical music, the heights SPB scaled were not something that even well trained singers could touch. He carved out a niche for himself after entering the field when the then veterans like T M Soundararajan (TMS) and P B Srinivas were ruling the roost. The evergreen song ‘Ayiram Nilave Vaa’ (come thousand moons) from MGR starrer Tamil flick ‘Adimaipen’ catapulted him to fame in 1969 and there had been no looking back for SPB since then. Living and breathing music aptly fitted him as the gifted singer said a couple of years ago that he was recording a song every day, even over 50 years after he made his debut in 1966, besides being associated with several reality shows on TV. Quite unassuming despite his unparalleled achievements, including countless national and state awards and the coveted Padma Shri and Padma Padma Bhushan, he worked with generations of music composers, crooning a staggering 40,000 plus songs during his enviable over five decade career.Īn extraordinary singer, who was influenced by veteran Mohammed Rafi, SPB stamped his class in thousands of evergreen songs, evoking various emotions, be it joy, romance or pathos and later also took to acting in some films. The mesmerising voice of Balasubramanyam, who died aged 74 at a hospital here after being treated for COVID-19, endeared him to millions of fans as he strode like a colossus in the film and stage music world with numerous hits in 16 languages, more dominantly in South Indian films - Tamil and his mother tongue Telugu.
Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, popularly known by the magical three letters ‘SPB’, belonged to a rare breed of playback singers whose golden voice cast a spell over generations. He bagged the best playback singer award from the Tamil Nadu government for songs in both Adimaipen and Shanthi Nilayam.
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