There are some voices in the Indian music world which do not become old with time and S. P. Balasubramaniam was one of them. With his melodious voice and brilliant singing, he entertained many generations. From South Indian cinema to Bollywood, his songs remain people’s favorite even today. On the occasion of his birthday, let us know the story of that singer, who made a distinct identity in the world of music on the basis of his hard work, talent and unique records.
History was created by recording 21 songs in one day
Imagine a singer entering a recording studio in the morning and coming out at night with 21 fully recorded songs to his credit. This is not a fictional story, but a history created in Bengaluru on 8 February 1981, which was made true by the great singer Sripati Panditaradhyula Balasubramaniam (SPB or Balu) while recording Kannada songs for music composer Upendra Kumar. He also made a record of recording 19 Tamil and 16 Hindi songs in a day.
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Dream of becoming an engineer, but fate made him a singer
Born on 4 June 1946 in a Telugu Brahmin family in Nellore (Andhra Pradesh), Balasubramaniam’s father S. P. Sambamurthy was a ‘Harikatha’ artist. His father wanted ‘Balu’ to become an engineer. Respecting his father’s wish, he started studying engineering, but when he left his studies due to typhoid, he came to Madras (Chennai).
MGR had stopped recording for a month
In the year 1969, Tamil cinema megastar M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) for the recording of the song ‘Aayiram Nilave Vaa’ from his film ‘Aadimai Penn’. Was waiting for P. Balasubramaniam. At the last moment S. P. Balasubramaniam fell ill. The surprising thing was that MGR stopped the recording of the film for almost a month so that S. May P. Balasubramaniam recover and sing this song. This S. It was the magic of P. Balasubramaniam’s talent that this song recorded after his recovery proved to be a milestone.
S., who started his career on 15 December 1966 with the song ‘Emiye Vint Moham’ from the Telugu film ‘Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna’. P. Balasubramaniam did not take any formal classical education in music. Despite this, when in the year 1980, director K. When Vishwanath entrusted him with the responsibility of singing the songs of the film ‘Shankarabharanam’ based on pure Carnatic music, the veterans of classical music were skeptical.
But musician K. Under the direction of V. Mahadevan. P. Balasubramaniam sang the most complex bands like ‘Omkara Nadhanu’ with his smooth musical melody in such a way that he got his first ‘National Film Award’ for Best Playback Singer.
Got recognition in Hindi cinema from ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’
In the year 1981 when S. P. Balasubramaniam by K. He entered Hindi cinema with Balachander’s film ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’, the song ‘Tere Mere Beech Mein, Kaisa Hai Yeh Bandhan Anjaana’ from this film won him the second National Award.
Balasubramaniam became the voice of Salman Khan
After this, Balu became the official on-screen voice of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. Be it ‘Dil Deewana’ from ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ (1989) or the timeless song ‘Didi Tera Dewar Deewana’ sung with Lata Mangeshkar from ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun…’ (1994).
Showed amazing in the world of dubbing also
In the world of dubbing, he had become the Telugu voice of Kamal Haasan. In the film ‘Dasavathaaram’ (2008), 7 out of 10 different characters of Kamal Haasan were written by S. P. Balasubramaniam brought alive the diversity of his voice. Apart from this, he also dubbed for Hollywood actor Ben Kingsley in the Telugu version of the film ‘Gandhi’.
Honored with many big honors
For his unprecedented contribution, the Government of India honored him with Padma Shri in 2001, Padma Bhushan in 2011 and Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 2021. The Andhra Pradesh government honored him with Nandi Awards a record 25 times.
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His legacy is still alive today
S. died on 5 September 2020 at MGM Hospital, Chennai. P. Balasubramaniam breathed his last. Paying tribute to his unbroken legacy, a bronze bust of him was unveiled on 15 December 2025 at Ravindra Bharati, Hyderabad in the presence of stalwarts of the country.