SP Balasubramaniam, the legendary singer in the Indian Film Industry, passed away on Friday, leaving an irreplaceable hole in the fraternity. One of his most-successful collaborators in Kannada, Dr. Hamsalekha, was distraught with the news and reminisced the good memories he had with the legend.
‘I Can’t Believe That My Music Companion Is No More’
Dr. Hamsalekha, before his journey to Chennai, sat down with the media and talked about his relationship with SPB and the fond memories he had with the legend. The ‘Premaloka’ composer said that while his wife is his ‘life’s companion’ and Ravichandran his ‘cinema companion’, SPB is his ‘music companion’.
‘No Idea How I Would Spend The Rest Of My Life Without Him’
Saying that he has seen multiple bitter incidents in his life, Hamsalekha admitted that he would not witness a worse incident than the passing away of SPB. He even said that he had no idea how he would spend the rest of his life without him.
‘Premaloka Would Not Have Been The Same Without Him’
Dr. Hamselekha talked about his experience of having SPB on-board for Premaloka. He said: “I attribute the success of the music of my first hit Premaloka entirely to SPB. I wanted to try new voices for that album but failed. Then I opted for SPB, which I was not happy about in the beginning. But once he sang those songs, I realized what he brought to the table and I had a long collaboration with him.”
‘He Once Craved A National Award For A Kannada Song’
Although he had received a National Award for songs from other languages, SPB had once craved an award for a Kannada song. Talking about this, Hamsalekha said: “He was hesitant to sing songs in the film (Sangeeta Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai) as they were based on classical ragas. But given that both of us were not trained in classical music, we experimented and that fetched a national award.”
‘He Always Asked Us To Use Talent In A Measured Way’
Hamsalekha also talked about how SPB was never bothered about the competition that came his way. As per Hamsalekha, SPB always advised his friends to use talent in a ‘measured way’ and that this would help them in the long run. Hamsalekha said this suggestion has helped him in his career.
‘Bombay Studios Were Blown Away By SPB’s Talent’
Hamsalekha said: “Bombay Studios usually take 2-3 days for recording a song. They spend a lot of time extracting emotion from the singer and also suggest plenty of corrections. SPB’s talent was such that he used to finish all the sings just within 30-40 minutes. The output was high-quality, and this blew away the studios in the Film Capital.“
‘He Saved The Recording Of Each Of His Song’
Hamsalekha opined that discipline and retention were the two aspects that made SPB the legend he became. The Kannada composer said that SPB used to save the recording of each of his songs, something that helped him to retain the magic whenever he was asked to sing a song again on different platforms.
