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LOS ANGELES (Variety.com/Reuters): Singer SP Balasubrahmanyam, who lent his mellifluous voice to some 40,000 songs on thousands of Indian movie soundtracks, died in Chennai on Friday after contracting the coronavirus in August. He was 74 years old.
Balasubrahmanyam was a frequent muse to Oscar, BAFTA, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning songwriter AR Rahman, for whom he sang in numerous films, including his 1992 debut, “Red.” Rahman shared a one-word reaction on Twitter: “Devastated.” .
Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, generally known as SPB, was born in Nellore in 1946. He showed an early aptitude for music and won singing competitions while in school and college.
He studied to be an engineer, but eventually left to dedicate himself to singing full time.
Balasubrahmanyam made his film debut with 1966’s “Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna,” in which he sang a song in the Telugu language. She worked in the mainstream Hindi language of Bollywood and the thriving regional film scene in India, and then sang in all major languages including Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, English, and Malayalam.
Besides Rahman, Balasubrahmanyam worked with almost all the major Indian composers, including Ilaiyaraaja, Rahul Dev Burman, Hamsalekha, MM Keeravani, and MS Viswanathan.
He had been the singing voice on screen for several prominent Indian actors, including Salman Khan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Hassan, Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna.
He won the singer award at the Indian National Film Awards six times, for “Sankarabharanam” from 1979, “Ek Duuje Ke Liye” from 1981, “Saagara Sangamam” from 1983, “Rudraveena” from 1988, “Sangeetha Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai “from 1995 and” Minsaara from 1996 “. Kanavu “.
He has also been awarded some of India’s highest civil honors, including the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Padma Bhushan in 2011. In 2016, he was anointed Indian Film Personality of the Year at the Intl. Indian Film Festival, Goa.
Balasubrahmanyam also had an acting career and appeared in almost 50 films.
Memorable roles include in “Mithunam”, “Thiruda Thiruda”, “Keladi Kanmani” and “Kadhalan”.
He is survived by his wife, Savitri; daughter Pallavi and son Charan. – Reuters
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