After the phenomenal success of Raagalaya’s felicitation of the legendary K. J. Yesudas in 2008, I decided that the next icon to be honoured should be the one and only S. P. Balasubrahmanyam (SPB), whose immortal songs have touched millions across Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi.
When I contacted his office, I was asked to meet him personally in Chennai. Without wasting a day, I travelled there and had the privilege of meeting him at his residence. He welcomed me with warmth and humility. As I began explaining Raagalaya’s journey, he gently interrupted me with a smile and said, “I have already gone through your website. I know about all the good work you have been doing.” I was truly overwhelmed that a legend of his stature had taken the time to learn about our organisation.
When I hesitantly asked about his remuneration, expecting it to be much higher than what we had paid for the previous year’s event, he surprised me by quoting just half the amount. Seeing my stunned expression, he asked, “Is it still too much?” I replied that I was simply speechless.
His reason still brings tears to my eyes. He said, “You honoured my gurus like V. Dakshinamurthy, P. Leela and S. Janaki. I know you never organised those programmes for commercial gain. So I cannot charge you my regular fee.”
His kindness did not stop there. He even advised me to engage a Chennai-based orchestra to reduce expenses and personally shared the contacts of musicians who regularly performed with him. When I asked about female singers, he jokingly said, “Don’t you have faith in me? I can manage alone!” After a laugh, he suggested that the orchestra would bring the required singers.
Because of his generosity and support, the entire event cost less than half of the previous year’s programme, while the audience response was overwhelming. It was a houseful show, and the collections were almost double.
Later, I learnt another valuable lesson. A trust requested me to coordinate an SPB programme for their fundraising event. This time, SPB clearly said, “Since it is not your programme, my fee will be different.” During that event, unfortunately, the organisers failed to provide proper accommodation and basic facilities for his orchestra and co-artists. Deeply disturbed, SPB called me and said, “Vijay, I had told you not to get involved in others’ programmes. They are not taking care of my co-artists the way you always do.”
Those words stayed with me forever. It was a lesson in professionalism, responsibility and respect for fellow artists. From that day onwards, I decided never to become a middleman for organising such large events for others.
SPB was not just a legendary singer. He was a wonderful human being whose humility, compassion and respect for every artist made him truly exceptional.
I remain grateful that I had the privilege of knowing him beyond the stage. Those memories will stay with me forever.