S P Charan, film producer and son of legendary playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, on Sunday termed the messages being circulated on personal messaging applications and social media about his father’s hospital bills “hurtful” and “offensive”
In a video posted on S P Balasubrahmanyam’s verified Facebook page, Charan said the messages being circulated are just “hogwash” and underlined that the family and hospital are being forced to come out on the expenses incurred towards hospital treatment because of “a few people.”
“There are rumours about the amount of bill that was charged and that we had paid something and that we had some balance. And that we had requested the Tamil Nadu government, but they did not reciprocate and then I had gone to the Vice President of India and they had reciprocated instantaneously.
“And that the hospital was not releasing my father for the last rituals unless we paid the amount. Let me just say one just thing. This is all a big hogwash. I do not know why people do this without even consulting people and they do not realize how offensive and hurting it is to the people who are associated with this issue,” he said in the message.
Charan added that the family and the hospital were planning to come out with a press release or convene a press conference to explain the details.
Charan came out with the clarification after messages on WhatsApp said the family of SPB could not mobilize the money that the hospital asked them to pay and their request went unheeded. The messages also said Deepa Venkat, the daughter of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, had stepped in to pay the bills.
SPB, who was admitted to the MGM Healthcare on August 5, died on September 25, after 52 days in the hospital. In a statement, Deepa Venkat also termed the messages “factually wrong” and “incorrect.”
“The hospital informed the family of late S P Balasubrahmanyam sir that they need not pay anything further two weeks ago. The hospital has been providing best treatment and has been informing me about the health condition from time to time and at times to father also as S P Balasubrahmanyam sir is close to our family,” she said.