Mandolin Srinivas's first salary was Rs.175: Balasubrahmanyam

Chennai: "Shocked" with the untimely demise of well-known mandolin player U. Srinivas, renowned playback singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam (SPB) went down memory lane and shared how he met the late musician who earned Rs.175 as his first salary.

Srinivas died here Friday following liver-related problems. He was 45.

SPB took to his Facebook to share his thoughts and wrote: "I am in Hyderabad. Heard the shocking news about Mandolin Srinivas's demise.

"Vasu Rao, music director, then bass Guitar player, brought a 11-year-old-boy from Andhra Pradesh to Gemini studios in 1980, where I was doing the background score for 'Hum Paanch', the Hindi film, produced by Boney Kapoor and directed by Late Bapu," he said.

"(He) Introduced him as Srinivas, who played cinema songs on Mandolin. On my request, the boy played a song from (Telugu film) 'Sankarabharanam'. I was amazed at the perfection with which he played all the gamakas on the tiny instrument," posted SPB.

SPB further wrote that Srinivas "never learnt music theoretically and could not read and write notation and the purpose of coming to Chennai was to learn classical music".

"I sang the theme song of 'Hum Paanch' couple of times, he heard and played it perfectly. We recorded that piece and used it in the film. Rs.75 was the remuneration for a mandolin player at that time. Boney paid him Rs.175," he posted.

Srinivas performed at SPB's sister's wedding by taking "only the incidental expenses".

SPB concluded by saying Srinivas was a "great soul who elevated Indian classical music to universal level".