Did you know S P Balasubrahmanyam was once addicted to cigarettes?

Singers value their voice so immensely that they shun many favorite food items considered harmful to a melodious tone.

Although, Sripathi Panditharadhyula Balasubrahmanyam, aka Balu or SPB to his millions of fans never felt the need to suppress his cravings.

Balu used to relish all kinds of food items from groundnut, coconut, to ice-creams, sweets, sodas, and also savored the avakaaya (the famous Andhra spicy mango pickle).

“I eat everything without restrictions except non-vegetarian food. No food item ever harmed my voice,” SPB said once.

SPB was also addicted to cigarettes for many years but left it one fine day when his daughter Pallavi pleaded with him not to smoke.

“I was addicted to cigarettes. But I stopped just like that when my daughter implored me once,” SPB had said in a popular Telugu TV talk-show three years back.

Another great risk that SPB took that could have been detrimental to his voice, was getting operated, several years ago, to get a nodule formed in his throat removed.

“I thought surgery was the best option. When she came to know, Lata Mangeshkar Ji called me and advised against such a step ever. However, I went ahead with the procedure.”

Luckily, his voice remained the same.

Surprisingly for a singer who sung over 40,000 songs in a career spanning three generations of actors, SPB describes his singing career as unforeseen.

Renowned music director SP Kodandapani, with whom Balu shares the same SP surname, gave him the first break after spotting his talent in a singing contest in Madras.

Balu’s wedding with his wife Savitri was an adventure on a movie scale. As their elders had some reservations, Balu, with help of friends drove to Bangalore in a car and took her to Visakhapatnam and got married at the famous Simhachalam temple.

“We lived away from our families for two years. Later after our kids were born, we were happily reunited,” Balu said.

SPB possessed the expertise of modulating voice to suit the personality of the actor he is singing for like from heroes Kamal Hassan to yesteryear comedians Allu Ramalingaiah. He dubbed for Kamal Hassan in Telugu for a long time; many of Salman Khan’s hit songs were sung by Balu.