S P Balasubrahmanyam Profile, Age, Weight, Family, Biography & More

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam was from June 4, 1946 to September 25, 2020, also referred to as SP Balu, S P Balasubrahmanyam or Balu, was an Indian musician, book singer, music director, actor, dubbing artist, and film producer who worked primarily in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam Movies. He sang over 40,000 songs in 16 Indian languages.

He has won six national film awards for best male singer for his works in four different languages; Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Hindi; 25 Nandi Award from the State of Andhra Pradesh for his work on Telugu cinema and numerous other state awards from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu during his lifetime. In addition, he won the Filmfare Award and six Filmfare Awards South. According to some sources, he held the Guinness World Record for recording the most songs by a singer with more than 40,000 songs. In 2012, he received the National NTR Award for his contributions to Indian cinema.

In 2016, he was honored with Indian Cinema Personality of the Year consisting of a Silver Peacock Medal. He received the Padma Shri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011) from the Indian government. On September 25, 2020, he died in MGM hospital from COVID-19.

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam was born in the presidency of Nellore Madras (now Andhra Pradesh) in a Telugu family. Her father, the late S. P. Sambamurthy, was a Harikatha artist who had also performed in plays. His mother was Sakunthalamma, who passed away on February 4, 2019. He has two brothers and five sisters, including singer S. P. Sailaja. His son S. P. Charan is also a popular singer, actor and producer from South India.

Balasubrahmanyam developed an interest in music at an early age, studied musical notation, and learned music. He enrolled at JNTU College of Engineering in Anantapur with the intention of becoming an engineer. He interrupted his studies early due to typhoid and joined as an associate member of the Institution of Engineers, Chennai.

He continued to practice music during his engineering studies and won prizes in singing competitions. In 1964, he won first prize in a music competition for amateur singers organized by the Telugu Cultural Organization based in Madras. He was the leader of a light music troupe composed of Anirutta, his first audition song was “Nilave Ennidam Nerungadhe”. It was rendered by veteran singer P. B. Srinivas, who wrote and gave him multilingual verses in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, English and Urdu.

Balasubrahmanyam is married to Savithri and has two children, a daughter Pallavi and a son S. P. B. Charan, also a book singer and film producer. Sakunthalamma, Balasubrahmanyam’s mother, passed away at the age of 89 on February 4, 2019 in Nellore.

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