SP Balasubrahmanyam’s funeral held in singer’s Chennai farmhouse with a…

Versatile singer, actor, and music composer SP Balasubrahmanyam hailed as “singing moon” and “music cloud” by his millions of fans was laid to rest at his farmhouse near Chennai on Saturday with a 24-gun salute by Tamil Nadu police.

After the singer’s son SP Charan performed the funeral rites amid Vedic chants by priests, 24 police personnel gave a gun salute, and later the body was lowered into a deep pit and buried. With policemen marching along, the body was brought on a bier to the designated burial spot from an enclosure earmarked for people to pay homage and perform rituals.

The farmhouse at Tamaraipakkam in nearby Tiruvallur district teemed with his fans, well-wishers, and celebrities for the funeral and about 500 police personnel were deployed to regulate the crowd.

The singer, praised as “Padum Nila” (singing moon) and “Isai Megam” (music cloud) by his fans for his mellifluous voice tested positive for coronavirus and admitted to MGM Healthcare in Chennai on 5 August and he died on Friday.

Having sung over 40,000 songs in various Indian languages, SPB created a Guinness World Record for recording the highest number of songs, as reported by IANS. He has been conferred with the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer six times; he is a recipient of the coveted Padma Shri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011) from the Government of India. Besides this, he also won numerous Filmfare and state awards over the years.

Apart from being a phenomenal vocalist, SPB has also made brief stints as an actor, music director and producer. As a playback singer, he is most remembered for lending his voice to Salman Khan in his early films — Maine Pyar Kiya, Saajan, Hum Aapke Hain Koun! to name a few.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)