Moodbidri: Multilingual singer and actor Padma Bhushan Dr Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, fondly known to his innumerable fans by his trademark initials SPB, has been chosen to receive this year’s Alva’s Virasat award. The announcement was made by Dr M Mohan Alva here.
The colourful Virasat event will be held at the Vanajakshi K Sripati Bhat open-air auditorium in Vivekananda Nagar of Puttige, located adjacent to the Vidyagiri campus of Alva’s institutions, from Dec 24 to Dec 27.
The award will be presented to SPB on day one of the event. The award carries a cash purse of Rs 1 lakh and the traditional honour.
About SPB
The celebrated singer’s talent had been spotted right from his childhood, through the Talent-spotting Contest in Chennai. He made his debut in playback in Telugu in ‘Sri Maryada Ramanna’.
In his singing career spanning over four decades, the 69-year-old singer has rendered over 35,000 recorded songs in 15 languages and has scored music for over 45 films. He has lent his voice in 100-plus movies in several languages.
The fact that he sings any song from his heart is proved by his strict adherence to diction and voice modulation in the respective language. Tulu is one of the languages he has sung in. The superhit ‘Mokeda Singari’, written by Seetaram Kulal, which he rendered for the 1972 Tulu movie ‘Pageta Puge’ has remained an evergreen number, sung or hummed by his fans even now.
He has also been a voice-over artiste in dubbing for many top-notch artistes including Anil Kapoor, Kamal Haasan and others.
SPB is married to Savitri. They have been blessed with two children, Pallavi and son S P B Charan, also a playback singer and a movie-maker.
