SPB: Actor, singer, music director, dubbing artist all rolled into one

There is no end to the maverick acts pulled off by legendary singer S P Balasubrahmanyam (SPB).

The 74-year old legendary singer passed away in Chennai on Friday at 1.04 pm.

The multi-faceted singer had won six national awards. And, the Andhra Pradesh government's Nandi award came to the singer 24 times. So, as we wonder how he found time to render so many songs, there presents SPB, the actor. He has acted in 72 films; Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil included.

One of the most important song of his repertoire is the song 'Mannil intha kaathal…' He acted in a song which was set to tune by the singer himself and it goes thus: 'Agaram ippol sigaram achu.' SPB asked none other than K J Yesudas to sing the song which apparently looks easy to render. But SPB, in all his humility, thought Yesudas would do a better job at rounding off the complex octaves after the Pallavi and the beginning of the Charanam. Recently, SPB and Yesudas were together in a concert in Singapore and this song was the most appreciated.

It is said that many choreography teachers used to openly applaud the way SPB used to pull off dance moves. The record for the Indian singer who has acted in the most number of films would definitely go to SPB.

SPB can easily handle English, Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada. He is also an accomplished dubbing artist. He has lend his voice to Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Girish Karnad, Geimini Ganeshan, and Arjun.

It doesn’t end there. He found time to give music to 46 films in four languages. He acted in Tamil and Telugu serials and was an active presenter of many TV shows. He also turned up as a judge on many music reality shows.