P B Srinivas, a versatile playback singer whose mellifluous voice that also brought ghazal genre of music in South Indian film music and enchanted audiences, died here today at 83.
Prativadi Bhayankara Srinivas, who sang over 2000 songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, was not keeping well for the past few days.
Srinivas, who started singing from 1955, had rendered many a popular hit and was the main playback singer for late Tamil veteran actor Gemini Ganesan in his heydays. The duo produced some of the most memorable Tamil songs together including 'Kaalangalil Aval Vasantham' (She is the spring of seasons) and 'Mayakkama Thayakkama' (Is it a faint or hesitancy) among many others. He had lent his voice for several other heroes also.
Born in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, Srinivas made Chennai his home for his career that lasted over six decades.
His genre of singing included Carnatic music and ghazal. He was fluent in eight languages that included Hindi, Urdu, English and Sanskrit. He had also penned several ghazals in Telugu.
His first foray into playback singing began with the song 'Sorgam Enbathu Namakku' with Swarnalatha from the movie 'Nammavar', composed by Mahesh. It went on to became a runaway hit.
He had also sang in 'Minsaara Kanavu' with A R Rahman for 'Maana Madurai'. Then came 'En Uyire" in Mani Ratnam's 'Uyire..' (the Tamil version of 'Dil Se..').
Srinivas had sung for music directors Viswanathan Ramamoorthy, K V Mahadevan of earlier decades and present day directors like Ilayaraja, Deva, Vidyasagar and Bharadwaj.
