SP Balasubrahmanyam, the Sound of Music
Hyderabad: In late 60s and early 70s a delicate voice with abundant energy started booming in the south alongside the veterans like Ghantasala, TM Soundarajan and PB Srinivas.
Soon that voice became a legend as SP Balasubrahmanyam has now become a household name for followers of film songs.
Sripathii Panditharadyula Subrahmanyam, or simply Balu, was an engineering drop out from Ananthapur who ruled the film world singing in Telugu, Tamil, kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and other languages to log 40,000 songs in his career spanning four-and-a-half decades. He shares the birthday of December 15 with Bapu.
As he entered the film land, he had no basic qualification. He has no background of classical music, no godfather or relative in the industry but after initial struggle, and working as an assistant to a music director, SP Kodandapani gave him a chance and that was the beginning of a young zooming voice swinging the language and beat of youthful bliss.
Since Ghantasala was at the peak end of his career, SP filled the gap and stood ground modulating his voice to suit the stars having varying levels of pitch from NTR to ANR to Krishna and comedians as well.
It was high time he learned music and started learning amidst a successful career. This helped him to win the national award for the song Sankara nada sareera in the film Sankarabharanam.
He also composed songs and was a music director as well of great repute. From Lata Mangeshkar to Sreya Ghosal, he sung with a majority of the singers. His album of Siva Sthuthi is a great hit and is preserved in many homes as a treasure while some temples play it.
He lent his voice to many stars for dubbing. SP voice was most suited for Kamal Hasan in Telugu. At the peak of his career, he had a problem with his voice buds and underwent an operation, against the advice of many.
He started singing and dubbing and the trouble began again with his buds. This time he underwent treatment and kept away from singing.
Sri Rama Rajyam was on exception as he took to singing under the music direction of Illayaraja.
He anchors and conducts the highly popular Paaduta Teeyaga, a music programme beamed by ETV. He completed many editions of the programme which is still running to good viewership.
News Posted: 15 December, 2011
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