Flickr loves India
Yay! India maps on flickr! I love this. I’m a fan of flickr and I was always feeling bad that flickr din’t have nice maps for India. Now, the fine maps of Yahoo! India maps is with flickr also. That’s great! Now it’s more easy to geotag.
Break the silence
Break the silence
Originally uploaded by
The Last Paladin
HIV – The disease that people are generally afraid of telling out due to the fear of rejection. Organizations around the world are doing their best to remove the fear and increase awareness of HIV/AIDS.
I saw this advertisement in a news paper on Sunday. A great deed by a family that told openly that the groom is HIV positive. I’ve heard of family men who denied that they were first affected after testing for HIV resulted in positive.A good family life is possible for him if he gets a HIV positive girl, because their child can be protected from HIV (in pregency) with medicines.
But look at the irony, a person earning a million an year should be well educated. Such a person was negligent about HIV and ignored the preventive measures (if it was due to sexual contact).
Some states have made HIV test mandatory before marriage, but I doubt if any arranged marriages will actually do this.
Break the silence. HIV is a taboo today, let’s hope everyone will speak about this openly.
Watch out for the landmines
Red is the colour traders and inverstors don’t like. It was January 2008, every investor was happy. All the stocks were at life highs, all IPOs oversubscribed, huge volumes in derivatives and day trading. There were even news articles suspecting terrorists’ investments in Indian markets. All of a sudden, the land mine exploded. Its name is FII.
My experience with the stock market is very less, I understand the situation this way.
Recession in the US might have forced millions of people to withdraw their savings from mutual funds. Fund houses and banks are already hit by sub-prime and where will they get the money to cover losses and to give back to the investors? They should withdraw their investments from the markets to get money. So, the obvious target is a market like India, where there was an excellent bull run and they might be in profits in almost all their holdings. There the landmine is, the FII investment in India.
“Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.” -Warren Buffet
I read a wonderful article in ‘Dalal Street’ – The ticking bomb called FII. According to them, the FII investment is about Rs. 6 lakh crore. Even if the FIIs pull back a portion of this huge amount, there would be a sharp dip in the prices of stocks. That is what exactly happened. Prices of some stocks touched the sky when FIIs showed interest in them. And they are hit badly when they sold them.
I think the worst is not over yet. If more FIIs decide to sell off, we may see worse sensex levels. Investors, be cautious. Don’t chase a stock just because FIIs have invested in it.
“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.” -Warren Buffet
It’s the time to buy stocks. Buy, buy, buy, just stocks.
Ugadi – Telugu new year
To those who don’t know Ugadi, it’s the new year day of Telugu and Kannada people in India.
I’m always fascinated about the kind of festivals we have in India. Right on the needed time, much needed scientifically, socially etc. Ugadi is one such festival, it’s the beginning of the year in lunar calendar.
Ugadi marks the beginning of Spring, vasanta navaratri starts from today, and the ninth day is Sri Rama Navami. Though it falls in Spring, practically, Sri rama navami marks the beginning of hot Summer. You know how hot the climate is in India. The practice of distributing fans made of dry leaves is a way of charity, these fans are used to get relief from the summer heat. Of course, those days there were no ceiling fans and air-conditioning. Who will forget the vadapappu and panakam that is distributed in temples on Sri rama navami? No matter, you believe in God or not.
The special Ugadi pachadi with six tastes of life is a must take on that day. This mixture is a way of teaching children that life is a mix of ups and downs, and you should not be overwhelmed by success or distressed by failure. After all, it’s life and you have to see everything. My mom says this on every Ugadi.
The day starts with oil bath. And then, the Ugadi special mixture is prepared with six tastes: Tamarind, Neem buds, Jaggery, Chilli/Pepper, Raw Mango and Salt. This is a unique taste that you don’t get in anything. Along with taking this, learn the lesson – life has all these.
Then comes Panchanga Sravanam, recital of the Panchangam – the predictions for this year by astrologers. And after that, as usual with all festivals, invite extended family and celebrate. I enjoyed all this in childhood, but now almost at the end of Brahmacharya, learning to earn/profession is more important than everything else.
Happy Ugadi! ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు
Heroes trash Badshahs
I hardly follow ICL 20-20, but the two finals on the last weekend were very interesting. The teams in final were Hyderabad Heroes and Lahore Badshahs. Heroes won the first of best-of-three finals, the second final was a tough contest between them.
The Badshahs managed to score 130/9, IS Reddy’s 4-19 and Stuart Binny’s 3-9 were stunning. The Heroes looked weak in the initial overs, but Rayudu hit a good 46 off 39 which resulted in a tie between the sides. Then came the bowl-out. It looked much like a India-Pakistan match, coz all Lahore Badshahs are from Pakistan. History repeats itself, Heroes won the bowl-out 3-0.
Yay! I’m gonna follow ICL from now. The timing is just good, 7pm, return from office, sit back and relax.
BCCI is doing a big mistake by not recognizing ICL. It’s not good for cricket. There can be good players who can shine in team India. Please don’t kill ICL. We want more 20-20, we want good players to wear the blue cap.
They break the captcha
Yahoo! Chat rooms is a nice place to hang out when I’m bored. I made so many chat friends, but the problem is that most of the time the rooms are filled with dumb chat bots. Some time back Yahoo! introduced captcha verification to enter into a chat room. This system worked fine for some days, but soon the spammers seem to have found a way out.
I read a blog post sometime back explaining how a captcha system can be broken. Here is how it works:
As usual I entered a chat room, the last name looked interesting, so I pinged that user. That looked like a bot, replying to my chat. It has replies to the easy messages like Hi; asl? But when I ask “what are you?”, it replies “…umm fine… how r u”. Wow! what a reply! Then, I realized that it’s a bot.
Now, I saw the profile of the user, and clicked on the homepage link, and I saw a captcha and a text box in that site, which disappeared now. The captcha looks like a Yahoo! captcha and when some one types in the text and enters the site, the spammer might use this to enable a bot register a new Yahoo! ID or enter a chat room.
Oh my God! The Internet is broken.
A legend named SPB
The below article is based on GreatAndhra.com’s article.
About the author:
From this new year (Vyaya), Sri MBS Prasad will write about topics realated to movies, in a series called ’some gatalu’ (gatalu means past). Sri Prasad writes comedy articles, essays; also he is a translator and has done more than 350 such works. He writes stories and essays in telugu and english. He worked as editor of Mullapudi Sahiti Sarvaswam; managing editor of Hasam, a laugther/comedy-music magazine; host in worldspace radio’s padakkurchi kaburlu program.
I am a member of SPB Fans group on Yahoo! Many of our members can’t read telugu. So a small effort to make them happy by putting forward some words about SPB in english. I’m from Andhra Pradesh and am very proud to hail from the same place as SPB. I’m not a good translator, I did my best. Forgive me for mistakes. Comments are welcome.
Though this is on my blog, the credit goes to the original author for giving such a informative and wonderful biography of SPB. Thank you.
Here is my two cents, here we go…
Where to start about Balu? Is there anyone who doesn’t know him? He is seen on TV programs every week. Always talks about himself, his companions, colleagues and people who he admires. So, there is nothing to say about him, which you do not know. But, we can talk a lot about his character, his career, ups and downs in his life and his labour to become the favourite singer of telugu people.
As a singer, Balu was born on 15th December 1966. We know that Ghantasala had fallen ill since 1969, he passed away after five years. So, we may say that SPB easily came and filled up the vacuum created by Ghantasala’s death, and luck favoured SPB. Moreover, some people think that his sweet voice made his entry in to the cinema world a cakewalk.
All this was before 35 years, we may not know many things about that period, and we may not remember all of them. The vacuum created by Ghantasala’s illness and inability to sing benefited Ramakrishna(Telugu hero Saikrishna’s father). His voice was similar to Ghantasala’s voice, in lower pitch he resembled Ghantasala. Moreover he is nephew of Suseela.
He was the playback singer for ANR (Nageswara Rao) in Vichitra Bandam (1972); audio was a hit. Since then ANR wanted Ramakrishna to sing his songs. ANR wanted Ramakrishna to sing for Andalaramudu (1973). But Bapu, Ramana duo got SPB to sing. Let me talk about this later. What is observable here is, Balu dint get to sing for leading heroes very easily. His hard work and commitment got him further chances, and chances declined for Ramakrishna. Nothing came at free of cost to him. He got everything by his hard work. To know how he climed his ladder of success is not only informative but also inspiring.
Balu’s father, Sambamurthy is a harikatha scholar; he always took balu with him for his performances. He made him play flute and harmonium, but never taught him formal music. Middle class family with eight children, of which five girls; even a radio is hardly affordable to them. How can he think of his son entering in to the world of art in such a situation?
Balu was born in a village in Andhra-Tamilnadu border, studied in Srikalahasti, Nellore etc. When he was studying in PUC at Tirupati, he developed interest in art clubs, programs etc and got an arrear in a subject; he passed after that and joined engineering in Ananthapur. After studying two years, he dint like the place and being away from home.
Back home, he went to Madras and joined MIE (AMIE). Thus he came to Madras and joined some institute, but continued his trails to become a singer, for he got many prizes in singing competitions and big shots praised his songs.
He met numerous people to become a singer. We know that Kodandapani is the God Father of Balu; his recording studio is named after him. But he was not the only person who encouraged Balu.
I will tell about some important moments in his early days. What ever his talent may be, he has tried hard to get some chances. He came to Madras at 18 or 19. Balu was praised by Bharani at a light music competition, who happened to work for Chitralaya Sridhar as a ad designer. He took Balu to Sridhar’s shooting spot, where Balu sang a hit song with his confidence and no stage fear. He asked Balu to meet him at his office.
Though Sridhar was a producer, director and from andhra, most of his movies were made in Tamil. His music director was MS Viswanathan. The day next, Balu sang a Hindi song infront of him. He commended it and asked to sing a Tamil song. Balu replied that he doesn’t know Tamil and if someone tells him the song, he would write it in Telugu and sing it.
MS got a book of Kadalikkum Neramillai (காதல்லீக்க நேரமில்லை). It was the original of Preminchichoodu (ప్రేమించి చూడు), which was Sridhar’s movie. Balu wrote the song in telugu script and sang it. MS told that he has sung well but could not pronounce Tamil properly. MS told him that he would give chances if Balu learnt Tamil.
Balu sang in many languages – Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Tulu (I added). What ever song, he writes it in Telugu and sings it. Balu’s troop was on a Singapore trip. After the curtain was raised, Balu realized that he forgot his book in the hotel. He was supposed to sing Tamil songs, and he doesn’t know to read Tamil Script. He asked someone to get his book from hotel, and in that twelve minutes he managed with some song ‘Ragamo, Anuragamo’. He has lot of talent like this. (sarcastic)
As adviced by MS, Balu learnt Tamil, which needs lot of interest. Nagaiah has written in his autobiography – Once Kannamba was afraid to act a role in Tamil movie for she doesn’t know Tamil. Nagaiah advised her to learn Tamil so that she would get more chances. After that, she delivered a long (famous) dailouge in a Tamil movie.
Many Telugu people like Savitri,Shavukaru Janaki, SV Ranga Rao had double chances (In Tamil n Telugu), but our big heroes have no such chances. Ghantasala lost his market in Tamil. Gemini Vasan felt that his diction in Tamil was not good, so MM Raja was given chances. But our Balu was so careful that he did not receive any such complaints; Balu’s hindi diction also did not receive any complaints – such is his interest.
After an year of first meeting with MS, Balu again happened to meet him after a recording. He greeted him ‘Vanakkam Sir’ (in Tamil). He passed just shaking his head, suddenly stopped and inquired ‘Was it you whom I met in Sridhar’s Office?’ Balu replied in Tamil, ‘Amam Sir, Naanthan’.
MS: I asked you to meet me again, why dint u come?
Balu: You asked me to learn Tamil properly and come. So…
MS: You speak Tamil well now, this is enough.
MS told his assistant: Bring this guy to my office tomorrow.
Actually, Balu sang a Tamil song with LR Eeswari, but it has collected dust. MS sang a duet with Suseela in SantiNilayam(1969). The movie was based on ‘Sound of Music’, Gemini Ganesan was the hero. A song was based on him ‘Iyarkai Ennum Ilayakkani’ (இயற்கை என்னும் இளையக்கன்னி) was sung by Balu.
Balu’s mentor Kodandapani was not a top music diretor in Telugu, but MS was. MS composed music for MGR films also – Neerum Nerupum (நீரும் நெருப்பும்) MGR’s double action movie. What ever the talent may be, fame comes to singers only when they sing for big stars. In those times, NTR, ANR were top in Telugu; MGR, Sivaji in Tamil. When Balu sings for these stars, he would become famous; and MGR was a king in Tamil cinema. He can convince his producers if he likes the voice.
When that kind of a person offered a chance, Balu was suffering from Typhoid. If MGR waits for this song, his Jaipur shooting should be cancelled, that hits the call sheets of many other artists too. Who would wait for a new singer? Though Kodandapani encouraged Balu, he remained as a track singer. He thought it was a track song that he sung in Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna (శ్రీశ్రీశ్రీ మర్యాద రామన్న). It was a song to be sung by Suseela, PB Srinivas, Eelapata Raghuramaiah or Ghantasala. As Ghantasala was ill, Balu sang his track. Afterwards, they recorded his song as it was good.
Thus Aemi Ee Vinta Mohamu (ఏమి ఈ వింత మోహము) was recorded in 1966 and released in 1967. This shed a little light on Balu, but it did not take him to good heights. Those times, his post was ‘Assistant of Kodandapani’. He taught Balu some songs to sing the track for the comfort of singers. He asked producers to give money to Balu for that. When Balu was a track singer, he got a chance in ManchiKutumbam to sing Tyagaseelavamma Mahila Anuragaseelavamma (త్యాగశీలవమ్మా మహిళా అనురాగశీలవమ్మా, మంచి కుటుంబం). After singing the full song, he was told that Ghantasala will sing the song and it was just a track what he sung.
Muhurtam was set for Sukha Dhukalu. Ghantasala was ill and could not come, he had to sing Medante Meda Kadu (మేడంటే మేడా కాదు, సుఖదుఃఖాలు). When producers felt sentimental, Kodandapani struk at the right time saying ‘If you agree, my assistant will sing the song, we can start the recording’. They agreed and thus Balu sung play back for Chandra Mohan.
In the same year, he sung a song for Rammohan in Privatu Mastaru – Paaduko Paaduko Paadutu Chaduvuko (పాడుకో పాడుకో పాడుతూ చదువుకో). Mullapudi VenkataRamana liked Balu and offered him hero role in Bangaru Pichuka. Balu declined and asked for chances to sing. Thus he sung a song in that movie. Movie was a flop, but music was not. Balu sung with Suseela, Mahadevan composed. Balu was as fresh behind the screen as Chandramohan was on the screen.
For long time, Balu’s voice was identified only with Krishna. Krishna was youth icon then, Balu’s voice suited him well. It helped both of them to build their careers. Guntalakidi Gumma – Nenante Nene was very good on the screen as it was behind the screen.
When his career was at this stage, Balu got a chance in MGR’s movie. It was a different level compared to singing for Krishna and Chandramohan. Again he missed that chance due to bad health. But MGR waited for Balu to recover. He started to Jaipur only after the recording. MGR told Balu his logic, “You might have told to others that you are going to sing for me. They would not believe that it was due to your health. They would think that you dint sing well and so I changed you. It would be a block for your future. When talk comes out that I’ve postponed my shooting for you, your image will improve, and it will be good for you.”
Wow! what a thought! Today many producers start with out proper planning and stop abruptly, which is a blow to many new stars. Not only a blow on their expectations, but they will get a good name of ‘Iron leg’ in the industry.
Balu sung Ayiram Nilave vaa (ஆயிரம் நிலவே வா) was composed by Mahadevan, but MS made him to sing that song in his program. He got best singer award from TamilNadu government for that, which was his first award from government.
When Balu was at a good pace in Tamil, Yesudas songs used to be hits. Balu was set back by this. In telugu, he was singing for second-grade heroes. He sung for Nagabhushanam, Kanta Rao etc.
Balu has sung a song with Ghantasal in Ekaveera. Then the talk was – This guy sings well, but being at par with Ghantasala is doubtful. He sung two songs with Ghantasala – Enado vechina Udayam (Manchi Mitrulu), Prati Ratri Vasanta Ratri (Ekaveera). In both the songs, he proved that he was less to none. When Ghantasala was asked about his successor in America, he could tell ‘Bala Subrahmanyam’
Slowly, everyone had to choose Balu. Sobhanbabu wanted chose Ramakrishna instead of Ghantasala, but finnaly Balu sang that song.
In 1970s, Balu hardly sung, but performed in many concorts. Ilayaraja brothers were in his troop. With all these guys, he roamed all around and gave many concorts, and remained popular. Stage craft is his art. He knows how to talk, how much to talk, what to talk. His wit and brilliance has drawn audience to the concorts. People went even if he din’t sing, just to listen to him. On TV, he is a master of anchoring.
He know using not only songs, but also words. Giving information about people, encouraging them, commentary, smile, he has so many skills to bring beauty to any event. He can organise programs very well abroad also.
His telugu is pure. You can find no slang in his language, inspite of Nellore and Chittoor having distinct slangs. His letters are also good. Crisp, brief, neat hand writing, looks as if you have to preserve it carefully (Author says he has some letters).
Satyam was another music director who gave many songs to Balu. He was an assistant to Adinarayana Rao and TV Raju. He is an expert in flute, violin and dholak. He gave many offers to Balu. Ae divilo virisina parijatamo and Ae parijatamuliyagalano cheli (ఏ దివిలో విరిసిన పారిజాతమో, ఏ పారిజాతములీయగలనో చెలి) brought the tenderness in Balu’s throat to the music lovers.
But thier first meeting was not good. Balu had to sing a song, for which Satyam came to a conclusion that Balu cannot sing that song. Moreover LR Eesari can give special effects in such songs. Balu ran to tears and came out of the place, and production executives had to rebuke Satyam. He had to get it sung by Balu.
Slowly he became a fan of Balu. Ae divilo virisina parijatamo female version (ఏ దివిలో విరిసిన పారిజాతమో) was sung by Janaki. Satyam asked Balu to sing better than her. Balu became nervous and had to sing the song again.
Balu got a chance to sing for ANR. Bapu, Ramana came to Balu’s house and told him that Ghantasala was ill and they wanted him to sing for ANR. But ANR was not confident that Balu’s voice would suit him. They asked him to come to their office to sing the songs and record them, so that they can convince ANR easily.
It was a good chance for Balu, top star and top directors. Exactly on the recording date, Balu had a foreign trip and everything was booked for whole troupe; agreements were signed. He had to leave the chance to sing for ANR.
Inspite of all these events, he reached the top. Balu can sing for both ANR and NTR, but with different tones; where as Ghantasala does not. Balu knows mimicry and it was useful for him in dubbing. His friend Chakravarthi pulled him to dub. Chakravarthi (originally Appa Rao) He sang in Nazar’s Burra Katha troupe. He came to Madras to become a singer, but became an assistant director. He was dubbing in free times and earned money. Dubbing for Nagesh in ‘Server Sundaram’ brought him good fame.
When Balu sang for Maryada Ramanna, Appa Rao praised him and got acquainted with him. He was assistant director to CS Rao. He got two chances – one music director, one director. On Balu’s advice, he chose to take up music director chance. His first movie was Mooga Prema.
Balu sang a song in the movie. After that ‘Sarada’ movie turned Chakravarti’s career. Ramakrishna sung all the songs, but the title chorus was sung by Balu. With Sarada, Chakravarti ruled telugu cinema music for 15-20 years.
Most of Chakravarti’s songs were rhythm oriented. He insisted Balu to participate in his recording on birthdays and new year days. When Balu and Suseela were planning foreign trips, Chakravarthi booked all recording studios for a month, so that Balu can sing for him.
It is interesting to know how Chakravarti got Balu into dubbing profession. Vijaya Bapineedu dubbed Balachandar’s Manmadha Leelai (Tamil) in to Telugu. Chakravarthi dubbed for Kamala Hasan. There is another character that speaks with Brahmin slang. He asked Balu to dub for that character. Balu declined, so he asked Balu to come and offer coconut at the Muhurtam time.
After pooja, he started telling dialogue. When the clerk character came on to screen, he asked Balu to deliver the dialouge like Balu’s father, so that it will be a guidance to other dubbing artists. Balu started speaking, he signalled the recording staff and they recorded. “Play it once. He will listen to it” and Balu was surprised and happy to listen it.
“Do you play this and ask dubbing artist to speak like this?” asked Balu. “How come different artist, you told dubbing at muhurtam, that’s it you are commited to dub this character. If you walk out, producer will feel sentimental and treat it as a bad omen”, replied Chakravarthi. Thus born dubbing artist Balu. After that, Balu has dubbed many Kamal movies. He imitates so well that it suits Kamal very well. Balu doesn’t have the gruffness Kamal has in his voice. Once Kamal said “I would love to have your voice”.
When Kamal went to Bollywood, Balu also went with him and made telugu presence felt there. Maro Charitra’s hindi version ‘Ek Dhooje keliye’ songs were a huge hit, and audience were mesmerised by the songs. He had few more hits, but he dint settle in Bollywood. Depending on only bollywood is waste of time, and he has a good market in south indian films.
One of Balu’s arts is music composing. In his concorts he used to introduce some changes and observed the pulse of audience. He used to do different experiments. In 1975, Peketi Sivaram produced a documentary on AP, length of 15 min. Balu gave background score to that movie, thus his first music composing.
In 1979, Balu composed music for Dasari Narayana Rao’s Kanya-Kumari. Veturi blessed Balu that he would become a good music director. Bapu moulded Balu as a good music director. Bapu listens to gazals a lot. Balu also joined him in that.
Bapu gave chance to Balu in another movie, Turpukelle Railu (Train going towards east). Bapu wanter a sound track as if train is running on a tabla. Balu exactly gave what he wanted.
A song (chuttu changavi cheera) in that movie was hit. It was based on the gazal ‘Rafta Rafta’. Bapu wanted it in the same style. Ramana also praised violin progressions in the song, for which Balu felt very happy.
Once after a composition, when Balu was about to pack up, Veturi wrote two lines and gave it to Balu. Bapu came by and told, “Why should we leave such a beautiful combination of green and moon, let’s create a situation and fit this song in, write the remaining song also”.
Balu might have the art to recognize talent, many famous people worked with him in their intial stages. When Balu was running orchestra, three villagers came to him. One of the three brothers told “It’s very difficult for us to make a living, we dint learn music but we can play instruments”. Balu gave one of them a harmonium and asked him to play. Soon after he played, Balu recognized his talent and felt he is ingenious.
Balu told him “I’ve people to play harmonium, you play guitar”. He is Ilayaraja (The Maestro). Others Drums Bhaskar and Gangai Amaran – Guitarist and Lyricist.
Another music director, AR Rehman also worked in Balu’s orchestra. His father Sekhar was the first to offer a chance to Balu in Malayalam. A famous malayalam film music director Devarajan asked his assistant (Sekhar) to get someone else to sing a song and left for a different place. He used the opportunity to bring Balu in to Malayalam. After the song is done, he told his boss that it was just a track and if he doesn’t like it, he would get it done by whom he said. Devarajan felt that Balu’s voice was good and asked to finalize it. Thus, Balu’s entry in to Malayalam.
A big discussion happened before selecting Balu to sing for Sanakarabharanam. Balu declined it for he did not learn classical music and he had not enough confidence. Director Viswanath also agreed. But Puhelendi insisted that Balu should sing, for ‘Dorakuna Ituvanti Seva’ kind of song needs emotions, it need not be technically 100 per cent.
He offered training to Balu, and you know the result (he got national award for Sankarabharanam). Same is the case with Bapu’s Tyagaiah. I don’t know technical details, but to me, Balu’s songs are better than other classical singers.
The reason behind such a good expression in Balu’s songs is that he is an actor too. After hearing to his songs, poems in Srinatha, Bapu fell on Balu’s legs. Balu was confused and asked “What is this?”. Bapu asked “You are Lord Saraswathi’s Child, what’s wrong in this?”. He has acted in many films. Played a guest role in Mohammad Bin Tughlak. Ramaprabha is a minister. He appears as a singer in her birthday celebrations.
After that, ‘Padosan’ was remade in Telugu as ‘Pakkinti Ammayi’ (the girl next door), in which Chakravarti acted role of Mohammad. He asked Balu to act the role of Kishore Kumar. After that Balu acted in some Tamil movies which were dubbed in to Telugu – Premikudu (Kadhalan), Jo papa lali etc. In Pavithrabandham, he acted as father of Venkatesh. He acts in TV serials too.
He is a producer too. His first production ‘Captain Krishna’ was a flop. He had debt of seven lakhs. To clear the debts, he worked hard and produced another movie ‘Charitra Heenulu’ hopeful of profits. But it was also a flop. To get out of those debts, it took ten years for him. Ghantasala had a similar situation, he produced three films and lost his money. But Balu had other avenues to earn, he has market in other languages too. In kannada, he has a big market, and he is also physically fit. So could come out of all his financial problems.
After that his ‘Subhasankalpam’ was a success. Also dubbed ‘Bhamane Satyabhamane’ into Telugu.
Balu’s another facet is publishing books. He financed Paidipala’s research on Telugu film songs. He helped financially to Janarthanastakam and Tiruppavi books. He got a out a book on Ghantasala by Gopala Krishna. Also got Ghantasala’s statue unveiled in Hyderabad.
He always had a helping hand to good deeds. He told about our ‘Hasam’ magazine on almost every stage. We din’t give a penny to him for that publicity. He not even received an issue as compliment. He paid life time membership to the magazine.
He loves Telugu. Always educates viewers about telugu poems. He always canvasses good always. He is smart in all respects.
Singers’ renumeration was very low until he came into limelight, Upto 1969 Ghantasala was given Rs. 1000 per song. Only after Balu’s arrival, singers got five digit renumeration. He assesed the Audio market and told its potential and demand. He raised the status of singers.
He doesn’t have any degrees academically, but he is a student always. Well read man. He can speak English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada with good diction. He is a man of good taste.
We can talk about his talent for ages. So, now let me be a critic now. The main allegation on Balu was that he did not allow other singers to sing. In Ghantasala’s regime, Madhavapeddi, Pitapuram, PB Srinivas, everyone got chances. But it is a feeling that Balu exercised monopoly and did not allow others to sing. What a funny complaint is this! Is he getting many chances these days? Is he out of fame? Has his voice changed?
All these are market forces. He is believed to sing with different voices for different actors, so they asked Balu to sing for them. So he got many chances. Now a days, Teluguness in films is diluted and so he is not getting many chances. Charan also sings well. But he dint get many chances. Because, he knows to pronounce telugu clearly. It is the minus point for sure now-a-days.
Balu sung more than 35,000 songs. After Ghantasala he received PadmaSree. Since Balu dint imitate Ghantasala, he got his place. But almost 75 percent of Ghantasala’s songs were good. But it’s not the same with Balu. Of course, this is my personal opinion.
There is a reason for this. In his peak period, overall quality of songs reduced. There were hardly any situations when poet, musician and singer dicussed and improved the song. It has become a fast age. Songs are being written with out knowing what the character is, When there is no time to write, just sequence of words became songs. He has sung 19 songs on a single day. In these kind of situation, how can good songs come? Atleast music directors should be involved in this situation, but when people like Chakravarti was giving tons of tunes, how can we expect the songs to be evergreen?
It was the same situation in Hindi also in 1980s and 90s. But Kishore kumar improvised the songs and gave them life. The songs for which Balu worked like Kishore kumar will be evergreen, other songs will just pass by. They will be remembered not more than twenty years.
Before we conclude on Balu, I have to tell you some more. He is so humble on the small screen. It is astonishing, and some people don’t believe it. ‘What’s is this? He bows to everyone. Just a drama’ is the opinion of some people. But take it from me. He is very humble in his real life also. It is real modesty. I know this from common friends. I moved with him closely in some venues, so can say this for sure. He respects elders. He picks and encourages talented people. He encourages youth. He is gem of a man.
Finally here!
Finally I’m on WordPress. I tried many blog sites, finally landed up on this. This looks suitable for me. Let me see how well I’ll blog on this.
