S P Balasubrahmanyam Passes Away Of Covid-19

Legendary playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam passed away today after a 50-day battle with Covid-19.

He was 74, and is survived by his wife Savithri and two children, son S P Charan and daughter Pallavi.

The singer had first announced to the world his being infected by the novel Coronavirus (that causes the disease Covid-19) on August 5, 2020. He had at that time said that he had just mild symptoms, and that he was admitted to MGM Healthcare in Chennai.

The singer's condition deteriorated, and he was put on ventilator support, but he eventually tested negative for the virus on September 5, and was even reported to be recuperating at a brisk pace. However, his situation suddenly deteriorated yesterday, with doctors saying he was "extremely critical".

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, known as Balu and SPB among his fans, was a prolific vocal artist, having sung over 40,000 songs in his lifetime in 16 Indian languages, the primary ones being Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. He was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award of the government of India, and of the Padma Sri, the fourth highest civilian award. He also received 6 National Film Awards and 25 Nandi awards, as also plenty of honorary doctorates.

Balu also acted in a bunch of movies, including in the Telugu remake of Padosan, where he essayed the role played by Kishore Kumar.

People starting from the President, the Vice-President and the Prime Minister, and including the CMs and Governors of the two Telugu states, other top local politicians and luminaries of the South Indian film industries, expressed grief at the death of the legend.