As a film producer, SPB made memorable Telugu films including Subha Sankalpam (directed by K Viswanath). He also featured in several Tamil films like Avvai Shanmughi and Kadhalan which have been runaway successes in their dubbed Telugu versions. His acting skills came to the fore in a number of Telugu films, including Pakkinti Ammayi, W/o V Varaprasad, Devullu, Pavithra Bandham, Indra and Mithunam. It was he who lent his voice to Kamal Haasan in several films dubbed from Tamil to Telugu. He has not only been a singer but a multi-faceted personality, excelling as a voice over artist, actor and film producer. SPB had sung several Christian devotional songs as well in Telugu which have been popular among the faithful. He bagged numerous awards and honours in the Telugu land during his distinguished career. Despite not being a trained singer in Carnatic music, SPB gained international fame and won awards with the iconic Telugu film Sankarabharanam of veteran filmmaker K Viswanath, released in 1980. Telugus, known for their love for cinema, grew up enjoying his songs in films of top-ranking stars, including Sobhan Babu, Krishna in the 1970s and 1980s, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Balakrishna, Venkatesh and others since 1980s and 1990s, Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun and others of present times. Balu sang for generations of film actors in Telugu from legendary N T Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageswara Rao to the present generation of stars. From peppy numbers to songs reflecting myriad emotions, SPB was the ubiquitous playback singer in Telugu films since the 1960s. He had lent his voice to scores of film actors since 1967 when he made his debut as a playback singer in the Telugu film Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna. With his energetic voice, SPB drew in fans who would impatiently wait for his songs to be played on the radio.īorn as Sripati Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam at Nellore in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Balu or 'Balu garu', as he is respectfully called by his millions of fans, has been a colossus in the Telugu film industry. In fact, the popularity of these songs was one of the reasons for the actors to reach their levels of stardom in the initial stages.

Starting from the ‘80s to present times, Balu sang many songs for these stars. For fans of Telugu cinema, however, SPB or Balu, as he was known, will always be the voice behind the favourite songs of their biggest stars - Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Venkatesh and Nagarjuna.

He had been recovering from COVID-19 in a Chennai hospital. The singer passed away on Friday, after his health took a turn for the worse.

Spb ilayaraja hits telugu