P. B. Sreenivas

Prathivadhi Bhayankara Sreenivas was born into a Telugu speaking Brahmin musical family Prathivadhi Bhayankara Phanindraswamy and Seshagiriamma as their younger son in Kakinada, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh.^[5] His father was a civil servant and his mother was a musician. His father wanted him to become a government officer and Sreenivas was awarded a Bachelor of Commerce degree and then passed the Hindi Visharad from the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha.^[6][7]

His uncle, Kidambi Krishnaswamy, was a drama artist and a singer. When Sreenivas was 12, Krishnaswamy gave him a chance to sing in a drama. Later, Sreenivas, a trained harmonium player and singer, went to Gemini Studios, Madras. Emani Sankara Sastry, a veena player, was one of the residing musicians. He introduced Sreenivas to S. S. Vasan, the owner of Gemini Studios. There, Sreenivas sang a super hit song sung by Mohammed Rafi, his favourite singer. It was "Huye Hum Jinke Liye Barbad", from Deedar (1951), composed by Naushad Ali, which landed him the opportunity to become professional playback singer.^[8][9]

PBS has sung at least 300 super hit numbers for Rajkumar. The actor once described Sreenivas as his Shàreera (voice in Kannada) while he himself was a mere Sharira (body in Kannada), summing up how some of the best-known films of the actor are unimaginable without Sreenivas lending his voice.^[10][11][12]

Until 1974, Sreenivas was Rajkumar's most frequent singing voice in films. However, once when Sreenivas was not available to sing for the movie Sampattige Sawaal, Composer G K Venkatesh encouraged Rajkumar to sing the song Yaare Koogadali that was supposed to be sung by Sreenivas. With that song, Rajkumar restarted his singing career, which had stopped after the movie Ohileshwara. Thus began his journey as the most famous actor-singer that Kannada film industry has ever seen.^[13][14]

The Kannada biography titled Madhurya Saarvabhowma Dr. P. B. Srinivas-Naadayogiya Sunaadayaana (penned by R. Srinath, Publishers: Surabhi Prakashana, Bengaluru) was released on 7 May 2013 at the Palace Grounds, Bangalore by the singers S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Vani Jairam and K. J. Yesudas.^[4]

• The second highest award of Karnataka State, the Kannada Rajyothsava Award awarded by the chief minister of the state^[15][16]
• The Tamil Nadu state's honorary Kalaimamani Award^[15]
• Dr. Rajkumar Souhardha award given by the super star's family^[17]
• The prestigious Karnataka Nadoja Award - constituted by Kannada University, Hampi, Karnataka awarded by the governor of Karnataka
• Tamil Nadu State Film Honorary Award - Kalaivanar Award in 2002

Sreenivas died of a massive heart attack at home in Chennai on 14 April 2013 at the age of 82. He was cremated on the next day. He was survived by his wife and children.^[18]