V. RAMAKRISHNA SINGER

Ramakrishna was born to V. Rangasai and V. Ratnam on 20 August, 1947. Well-known singer P. Suseela is his maternal aunt. His first seeing Ghanatasala at Gemini Studio when he went there along with his aunt during the recording of the song 'Pillanagrovi Pilupu' made him very happy, says this singer. In the beginning he used to sing light music for AIR Yuvavani programs under the music direction of Chittaranjan. He sang two songs unexpectedly in place of B. Mohanaraju for a family planning documentary. ANR happening to hear the songs offered him an opportunity to sing along with Suseela for the film 'Vichitrabandham.' Ramakrishna had examinations coming in two months, and ANR was good enough to wait till the exams were over to have the songs sung by Ramakrishna. His first movie song is 'Vayase Oka Poolathota.' His other number, 'Chikkavu Chetilo Chilakamma' had the youth of the day swinging.

ANR used to say that 'our' V. Ramakrishna's voice had all that could be expected from Ghantasala's voice. His memorable songs include 'Manasuleni Devudu' and 'Telugu Veera Levara.' The two valuable gifts he received are the life size portrait of Ghantasala from a fan, and an autographed Canadian dollar note from another fan Dr. Haribabu. These two gifts fulfilled his desire for a photograph with Ghantasala. NTR had all the songs in 'Srimadviraat Veerabrahmendra Swamy Charitra' sung by Ramakrishna. His songs in the movies, Andala Ramudu, Mahakavi Kshetrayya, Chakradhari, Danaveera Sura Karna, Andaru Dongale, Bhakta Kannappa, Mutyala Muggu, etc., brought him great name and fame. He gave live concerts in the US and Dubai. B. Vasanta combined with him first but later Jyothi replaced her. He married her and his son Saikiran acts as a hero in movies.

Filmography

1. Bava Marudula Sawal (1988) (playback singer)
2. Sri Shirdi Saibaba Mahathyam (1986)
(playback singer)
3. Shrimad Virat Veerabrahmendra Swami Charitra (1984) (playback singer)
4. Chakradhari (1977) (playback singer)
5. Daana Veera Shura Karna (1977)
(playback singer)
6. Bhakta Kannappa (1976) (playback singer)
7. Mahakavi Kshetrayya (1976) (playback singer)
8. Seeta Kalyanam (1976) (playback singer)
9. Gunavanthudu (1975) (playback singer)
10. Muthyala Muggu (1975) (playback singer)
11. Alluri Seetharama Raju (1974)
(playback singer)
12. Andala Ramudu (1973) (playback singer)
13. Palletoori Bava (1973) (playback singer)
14. Sharada (1973) (playback singer)
15. Vichitra Bandham (1972) (playback singer)
16. Kannavaari Kalalu
17. Secretary
18. Amaradeepam
19. Babu
20. Bhaktha Tukaram

P.B Srinivas Profile

Prativaada Bhayankara Srinivaas (born on sep 22) , shortly PBS, is a truly multifaceted talent to hit the Indian Music world. Though he hails from Andhra, he is very famous in Kannada and Tamil Film Music. He became very popular in Tamil after his beatiful renderings "Vanithaamaniye", "Kannale pesi pesi kollaathe" in the film "Adutha veettu penn". Thereafter he has given many many memorable songs(e.g. "Mayakkamaa kalakkamaa"(Sumai thaangi), "Nilave ennidam nerungaathe"(Raamu), "Chinna chinna kannanukku"(Vaazhkkai padagu), etc.) especially with the Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy and Kannadhaasan combination. He had the expressiveness and the ability to invest songs with delicate emotions that mesmerized anyone right in the first listening itself. In spite of this, he couldn't establish a strong base as he could in Kannada, with TMS taking over in Tamil and SPB in Telugu. (This is sometimes compared with Kishore kumar's "dethroning" of ) he is most well known for his melodious playback singing in the Kannada film industry for Dr.Rajkumar.

P.B. Sreenivos is fluent in eight languages (including English and Urdu) and has penned several ghazals in Tamil. His "home away from home" is the Woodlands Drive-In restaurant in Chennai where one can find him almost any day writing.

A true polyglot he is (writes and speaks more than 10 Indian languages) with flawless diction in most of the languages, has had success outside his native state Andhra. His popularity in Kannada films during late 50's to mid 70's was so much that he is claimed to be a kannadiga by many. The key to his success was the total identification that arose between his voice and Rajkumar, the dominant male star of the industry. (In Tamil PBS is identified with Gemini.) The range of songs PBS sang paralleled the range of roles done by Rajkumar (mythological, historical, social, fabulous, mystery, espionage, every genre one can come up with). It is said that the process of merging of the singer and the actor was far more complete than in the case of Raj kapoor and Mukesh. PBS is also popular in Hindi thru "Main Bhi Ladki Hun" (remake of "Naamum oru penn") songs like "Chanda Se Hoga Wo Pyara, Phulon Se Hoga Wo Nyaara", a duet with Lata. Chitragupta was the music director.

An often unknown facet of PBS is his literary skills. He comes from a poet's family and is wellknown in Telugu literary circles. He also composes songs in Tamil, Hindi, Sinhalese and Urdu. In fact, his Urdu ghazals have been acclaimed by the NorthIndian Ustads.

Some people claim PBS to be a muslim(probably because he sports the kind of a cap usually favoured Muslims), which is not true.

He was at ease singing in all the south indian languages - but left a great mark on Tamil and Kannada Film music.

In his 80s now - he was honoured at a local club in Bangalore recently - where he spoke very well and sang a few Kannada songs too.

Number of Songs In Different Languages

Sanskrit - 5
Telugu - 51
Kannada - 261
Malayalam - 9
Tamil - 93
Carnatic - 3


Filmography

1. Gorantha Deepam (1978) (playback singer)
2. Seeta Kalyanam (1976) (playback singer)
3. Chelleli Kapuram (1971) (playback singer)
4. Sampoorna Ramayanam (1971) (playback singer)
5. Saptaswarulu (1969) (playback singer)
6. Saakshi (1967) (playback singer)
7. Letha Manasulu (1966) (playback singer)
8. Gudi Gantalu (1965) (playback singer)
9. Preminchi Choodu (1965) (playback singer)
10. Tene Manasulu (1965) (playback singer)
11. Bobbili Yudham (1964) (playback singer)
12. Dr. Chakravarthy (1964) (playback singer)
13. Manchi Manishi (1964) (playback singer)
14. Lava Kusa (1963/I) (playback singer)
15. Chaduvukunna Ammayilu (1963) (playback singer)
16. Atma Bandhuvu (1962) (playback singer)
17. Raktha Sambandham (1962) (playback singer)
18. Dakshayagnam (1962/I) (playback singer)
19. Kula Gothralu (1962) (playback singer)
20. Intiki Deepam Illalu (1961) (playback singer)
21. Sri Seetha Rama Kalyanam (1961) (playback singer)
22. Iddaru Mitrulu (1961) (playback singer)
23. Bhakta Shabari (1960/I) (playback singer)
24. Runanubandham (1960) (playback singer)
25. Sahasra Siracheda Apoorva Chinthamani (1960) (playback singer)
26. Shantinivasam (1960) (playback singer)
27. Jayabheri (1959) (playback singer)
28. Bhale Ramudu (1956) (playback singer)
29. Rani Ratnaprabha (1955) (playback singer)

B . RAMANA SINGER