A singing phenomenon

jewel of the south

What can you write about a singer who has sung over 40,000 songs? Just the list of those songs in any one of these languages — Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi should fill up this space — and he has millions of admirers in all these languages. And as if that figure of 40,000 songs is not staggering enough, this singing phenomenon called S P Balasubramaniam — referred to simply as ‘SPB’ by millions of his followers — has been around for 50 long years!

He began his singing career on December 15, 1966 in Telugu for Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna and has just gone on and on and on ever since. He began his singing career in Kannada the following year for M R Vittal’s Nakkare Ade Swarga, which had comedian Narasimharaju and Jayanthi in the lead roles. That song was a duet, ‘Kanasido Nanasido’, with another singing legend, P Susheela.

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubramaniam was born to Shakunthala and S P Sambamurthy in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. His father was a Harikatha exponent. SPB was deeply interested in music and was part of a music troupe that used to go around towns and cities giving concerts. The team members had Illaiyaraja, Gangai Amaran and others — all unknown names those days.

SPB, like many young men of his generation, studied engineering, and joined the electrical stream at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University (JNTU), Anantapur. That career was not to be — he instead went on to electrify audiences as a playback singer in all South Indian languages and Hindi.

First impressions

How he was first noticed reads like a film script. He sang a song originally sung by the leading playback singer of the time, P B Sreenivas, in a music competition where he was declared the best singer. That was a Tamil song, ‘Nilave Ennidum Nerungadgdhe’ picturised on Gemini Ganesan (from the film Ramu). The judges for the competition were two stalwarts of music: playback singer Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao and music director S P Kondandapani. Kondandapani went on to introduce SPB to the world through the Telugu film Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna, of which he was the music director. There was no looking back after that, and SPB began a career on a high note that continues to echo across all languages and regions. 

The Telugu film Shankarabharam catapulted him into an even higher orbit. SPB himself has said in interviews over the years that when the film’s director K Vishwanathan offered him the songs for this movie, he was reluctant to take it up because he had no classical training background. Vishwanathan asked SPB’s father to persuade his son to take up the offer. SPB says his father told Vishwanathan that if he did not grab this golden opportunity, or sing the way he was required to, he should be given “one tight slap and told to do it.”

SPB relented, but only on the condition that he be allowed time to train and prepare. He then listened continuously to Telugu music composer and music director K V Mahadevan’s assistant Pugazendi’s pallavis on a tape that was looped continuously.  
He used to sing at least five songs a day those days, and did not want to stop singing to train for Shankarabharam as it would upset the other film-makers’ schedules. SPB, who is known to change his voice to suit actors, consciously took a decision not to do this for Somayajulu, who played Shankar Sastry in the film. “He had a rich, deep voice that I knew I could not match. So, I sang in my natural voice,” he says. But to his surprise, the songs turned out to match Somayajulu’s voice perfectly. “Those who believe in god may think it was a divine intervention,” he said. The songs and the film marked a turning point in Indian cinema’s history. 

In the film circles

Talking only about Kannada films — since the canvas of his work is so mind-bogglingly huge — he changed his voice subtly to suit actors like Anant Nag, Vishnuvardhan, Shankar Nag, Srinath, Ravichandran and many others. Veteran actor Anant Nag says only the first song SPB sang for him was recorded when it was not yet decided who the actor would be. “This was for Devara Kannu. The song was ‘Ninna neenu maratherenu sukhavidhe’ in my first so-called ‘commercial’ film. The next one was Bayalu Daari, which had the hit songs of ‘Elliruve, manava kaduva roopaseeye’ and ‘Kanasalu neene, manasalu neene.’ Then his next super hit songs were from the film Naa Ninna Bidalaare and then Chandanada Gombe and so many other films. He has sung over 75 songs for me and almost all of them are hits.”

Anant Nag, who is very musically inclined himself, has had many stalwarts sing for him in films that needed a classical touch. “Many of them were semi-classical also. In that sense, I have had the good fortune of having Balamuralikrishna as my voice in Hamsageethe, Jesudas for the Malayalam classical film Swati Thirunal, and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi for Makkaliralavva Mane Thumba and Nodi Swamy Naavirodu Heege. But I really consider SP as my voice. If you go back over the songs he sang for me, it would define my entire film career. Everyone says that when SP sang for me, he sounded like me. Somehow he got that inflection of his voice to sound like mine. We have had a fabulous association. When people listen to those songs, they may of course hear him, but they imagine me in their mind. I consider this to be my privilege and honour.”

The other angle to SPB is his kind and considerate nature. Song shows and talent hunt programmes on TV channels seem to have a deliberate agenda to make contestants break down so that TRPs go up. But SPB ensured such things wouldn’t happen on his shows. Renowned classical, sugama sangeetha and film playback singer M D Pallavi, who has been on many such shows with SPB, said that when such things occurred on his show, “he would ask for all the cameras to be shut off, go across to the youngsters, calm them down, talk to the parents, encourage them, and make sure that they were in control of their emotions. He would not allow any pressure to be put on the contestants.” Only after that would he return to his seat and the cameras would roll again.

Pallavi says she also experienced this kindness when she was a young track singer, just 18 years old. (A track singer was somebody who would sing the pilot track after many rehearsals with the entire orchestra: a common thing in those years when digital technology had not come in. Big singers would come to the studio, listen to the recorded track for reference and then record the actual song). SPB came in, listened to Pallavi’s track a couple of times, and finished in 40 minutes. “He then came to the control booth where I was sitting, asked the song to be played, and then turned to me and asked if the song was okay! ‘Sarigiththa, naan haadidhu’? I was speechless. But he said, ‘Yours is the first recording, and I have sung it with your reference track — you should feel happy with the final outcome!’”

Pallavi says she has sung with SPB in many concerts, and he is always nice to people. “I have worked with many ‘superstars’ — but he is genuinely a nice person who is in touch with reality. And he has a razor-sharp memory. He remembers everybody who has worked with him at each and every concert and every song recording. He knows which instrument has to play for a particular portion, the length, and other minute details. He is very precise and thorough with his work.”

SPB recorded 15 to 19 songs a day at one point in time, but ensured he put all his energy into each one of those 40,000 songs that he has recorded till date. What can one say except acknowledge that he is a true abharana, a jewel, of this country.