Prathivadi Bhayankara Sreenivas
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Voice of superstars falls silent
From the archives of The Times of India
April 15, 2013
In his heyday, he was best known as the voice of Tamil star Gemini Ganesan and Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar. But to the waiters at Hotel Woodlands, where he spent a few hours every evening, veteran playback singer P B Srinivas was a softspoken regular who was always happy to chat and sing with fans and sign autographs. By 3 pm every day, Srinivas would be at the front table of the restaurant with a sheaf of papers and pocketful of pens. His trademark silk and gold turban in place, he would scribble lyrics and poems, and meet friends and fans for the next couple of hours. Srinivas died in his house at CIT Nagar on Sunday following a heart attack. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Srinivas sang more than 3,000 film and devotional songs, besides composing and writing poetry. “We didn’t treat him like a customer and he didn’t see us as waiters,” said Sivaram Alwar, who has been serving Srinivas for 30 years at the restaurant. Srinivas moved to the restaurant after his favourite haunt Woodlands Drive-in was demolished to make way for a park. “He would bring us sweets and talk to us in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada,” Alwar said. Srinivas was born in Andhra Pradesh, but was fluent in all the southern languages, besides Hindi, Urdu and English. “It was never apparent that Telugu was his mother tongue. He pronounced all the words so perfectly,” said actor and film historian Mohan V Raman. “When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969, Srinivas was so taken up by the idea that he composed and sang a song for him,” he said. The song was titled ‘Man on the Moon’ and recorded with his longtime duet partner S Janaki. Srinivas produced the record at his own expense. “He presented a copy to the then US consul general in Chennai to be sent to Armstrong. Armstrong wrote back, thanking him,” said Raman. Srinivas made his debut in the early 1950s. He sang for Malayalam film ‘Harishchandra’ and Telugu film ‘Rani Ratnaprabha’ in 1955. But Tamil film ‘Prema Pasam’ starring Gemini Ganesan in which he did a duet with singer P Susheela, gave him his big break. “I’ve known him since 1961, when music director M S Viswanathan introduced us. It’s been many years and many songs, and I feel like I’ve lost a brother,” said Susheela.
