Telugu Desam Party chief and former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has asked the Jaganmohan Reddy government to establish a music university in Nellore and institute a national award in remembrance of legendary singer SP Balasubrahmanyam.
The illustrious playback singer, music composer, actor breathed his last on Friday in a hospital in Chennai after battling Covid-19 and other ailments for over 50 days.
On Sunday, Naidu wrote a letter to Chief Minister Reddy also asking for the installation of Balasubrahmanyam's bronze statue in the proposed university.
“The government should develop the place as SP Balasubrahmanyam Kalakshetram. The state music academy should also be named after him. This would encourage the youth towards fine arts as Balu has desired,” the Opposition leader said.
In his communique, Chandrababu Naidu also stated that Balu had wished for the installation of a statue of Tikkana Somayaji in Nellore. The 13th century Telugu poet from Nellore is famous as one of the Kavitrayams (poet triumvirate) who translated the great epic Mahabharata into Telugu.
“As per SPB’s wish, a bronze statue of Tikkana was molded during our tenure. The government should unveil it and fulfill his wish,” Naidu said.
“Honoring our ancient Telugu art traditions, upholding our cultural ethos would be the befitting tribute to SPB,” the TDP chief said.
Naidu demanded that the YSRCP government institute a Rs 10-lakh annual national award in the name of SPB and hold his birth anniversary as a state festival. The ex-CM reminded that during his tenure, a Rs 10-lakh national award in traditional music was established in honour of another Telugu son of the soil - renowned Carnatic musician Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (1930-2016).
74-year-old SPB, or Balu as he was known to millions of fans, hails from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. SPB’s father SP Sambamurthy was a musician and a Harikatha exponent, whose devotional musical shows and social plays were the primary impetus for Balu’s transformation into an accomplished musician and thespian.
Though he settled in Chennai for professional purposes, SPB maintained a firm connection with Nellore through his friends, family and visited the place. In February this year, Balu donated his ancestral home in Tipparajuvari Street in the town to the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham for running a Vedic school.