KCR A Good Singer, Won Many Prizes In College: KTR

Telangana minister K T Rama Rao said that his father Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was a good singer and had won many prizes during his college days.

"He is a great fan of S P Balasubrahmanyam and Ghantasala," Rao said on Saturday night when speaking at Sparsh Nite 2018 - The Life & Times Of S P Balasubrahmanyam, a concert for a cause held at Shilpakala Vedika in Madhapur.

The minister was the chief guest at the event, which was organized to raise funds to construct a 70-bed Sparsh Hospice, a palliative care centre to provide free service to terminally ill cancer patients. The Government of Telangana has allocated one acre of land for the purpose at Khazaguda. The aim of the centre is to help patients in the final stages of cancer embrace death without regrets. A team of volunteers and doctors helps ease the excruciating pain, anxiety and depression that afflicts patients.

On a more serious note, Rao said that the state government was taking up cancer screening for below poverty people, and so far 12 lakh people had been screened for breast, cervical and oral cancer in four districts.

Popular cricketer V V S Laxman, who was also present at the occasion, said that Sparsh Hospice was a wonderful initiative and needed support from everybody. He also said that S P Balasubrahmanyam was his role model, and that he was a fan of the singer and loved the Sankarabharanam songs.

SPB, his sister S P Sailaja, son S P Charan, Revanth, Tina Kamal, Ramya Behera, Sravya, Malavika, Sai Charan, Sri Nidhi, Poornima, Sri Krishna, Sameera Bharadwaj and other singers of SPB's team enthralled the audiences later. A galaxy of film stars graced the event including Allu Arjun, Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry and R P Patnaik. The night was compered by Jhansi.

Balu began the concert with Lalitha Kalaradhanalo and followed it up with the popular song Ghallu Ghallu Mani Sirimuvvalle. He also sang a Hindi song. R P Patnaik sang, too.