S P Balasubrahmanyam: A file photo of the singer. (courtesy: ispbofficial)
Highlights
- S P Balasubrahmanyam died on Friday
- He was called the voice of Rajinikanth
- "I will truly miss you," tweeted Rajinikanth
"You have been my voice for many years...your voice and your memories will live with me forever," tweeted south superstar Rajinikanth for veteran singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, who died on Friday. SPB, as the singer was fondly called, worked closely with Rajinikanth in the past. He was called the voice of Rajinikanth and two other actors - Kamal Haasan and Salman Khan. Mourning the legendary singer, Rajinikanth shared a video of himself and recalled their memorable moments in a tweet on Thursday: "#RIP Balu sir... You have been my voice for many years... Your voice and your memories will live with me forever... I will truly miss you."
In the clip, Rajinikanth said that S P Balasubrahmanyam's "sweet majestic voice will ring in our ears for a hundred years." He added that SPB respected everyone and that people loved him more than his voice. Rajinikanth also talked about SPB's long and prolific singing career and said that was unique among other singers in having sung in so many languages - S P Balasubrahmanyam sang over 40,000 songs in 16 languages.
The S P Balasubrahmanyam and Rajinikanth binary was a blockbuster hit - it became something of a superhit formula to have SPB sing at least the title track, if no other, of Rajinikanth's films - some of them are My Name Is Billa for the 1980 film Billa, Naan Polladhavan for the 1980 movie Polladhavan, Kadavul Padachan in Pokkiri Raja, Rakkamma Kaiyya Thattu for the 1991 film Thalapathi and Ballelakkha for the 2007 film Sivaji: The Boss. The duo last collaborated for the 2020 film Darbar, in which SP Balasubrahmanyam sang the track Chumma Kizhi . SPB also sang for Rajinikanth in his 2019 film Petta.
S P Balasubrahmanyam was admitted to Chennai's MGM Healthcare hospital on August 5 after he tested positive for COVID-19. Earlier this month, he tested negative for the virus. However, he wasn't taken off the ventilator. His health condition worsened on Thursday and died in the hospital the next day. S P Balasubrahmanyam is survived by his wife Savitri, daughter Pallavi, and son S P B Charan, who is a singer and producer.
S P Balasubrahmanyam won six National Awards for his work in the music industry. He worked extensively with Ilaiyaraaja, A R Rahman and other composers. He was also an actor, producer and voice actor.