A file photo of S P Balasubrahmanyam. (courtesy: ispbofficial/)
Highlights
- S P Balasubrahmanyam was hospitalised earlier this month
- His condition worsened last week
- "Get well soon dear Balu sir," Rajinikanth tweeted on Monday
Singing legend S P Balasubrahmanyam is still on life support and an expert team is monitoring his parameters, says the Chennai hospital that is treating him for COVID-19. SPB, as the singer is fondly called, was taken to hospital on August 5 after testing positive for the virus and although he said then that he had mild symptoms and expected to go home soon, his condition worsened last week. Last Friday, MGM Healthcare, the hospital he's in, said that S P Balasubrahmanyam, 71, had been taken to the Intensive Care Unit and was on life support.
On Monday morning, Rajinikanth said in a video posted on Twitter that he was glad to hear that S P Balasubrahmanyam had "crossed the danger zone." The day before, SPB's son S P Charan had announced in a tweet that his father was "breathing a little more comfortably."
In his video, Rajinikanth said, "I am happy S P Balasubrahmanyam has crossed the danger zone. I pray to god for his speedy recovery. S P Balasubrahmanyam has brought joy to crores of people singing with his sweet voice in many Indian languages for more than 50 years." He captioned the post: "Get well soon dear Balu sir."
Last week, A R Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja, Dhanush and other celebrities shared best wishes for SPB's speedy recovery. S P Balasubrahmanyam was admitted to MGM Healthcare on August 5. The same day, he posted a video message saying he was "perfectly alright" and urging well-wishers not to call him.
Winner of six National Awards, S P Balasubrahmanyam has an immense body of work - he has sung 40,000 songs in 16 languages; he's also an actor, a producer and a voice actor. In addition to his several awards, SPB has received the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.