When SPB, hero Krishna were not on talking terms!

(By a special correspondent)

S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, known to be very amicable and friendly had a tiff with hero Krishna, of all persons. It was Krishna who encouraged Balu (as SPB was called by friends in the industry) in early days of the later’s career when all the senior actors opted to have the songs rendered by an established and a highly accomplished playback singer Ghantasala. Super Star Krishna called Balu and asked him not to worry about his future and promised that he would produce four films in a year and all the songs in his pictures will be rendered by him. The combination of Krishna and SPB was highly successful.

SPB had the knack of adopting to the voice of every hero and even comedians. In fact, the first film he did had Padmnabham, a comedian, as hero. He sang for comedians like Rajababu and Allu Ramalingaiah also besides singing for all the heroes. When the going was very good, Krishna became angry on hearing about the conversation Balu reportedly had with a producer on his remuneration. Krishna said he could get the songs rendered by other playback singers to which Balu responded by saying that he could manage to live without singing for Krishna’s films. A gulf was created between two friends. They were not on talking terms for two years. There were no songs by SPB in Krishna’s films. Krishna had got Raj Sitharam to sing for his films. It was on the intervention of well-wishers like Veturi Sundara Ramamurthy, a great lyric writer, and the music director duo Raj-Koti that the two legends had come together again. SPB had started singing for Krishna’s films once again.