After their first film Sakshi, Bapu and Ramana were planning for a second film. It was when an English film named “Three Bites of an Apple” was released. Mullapudi Ramana was inspired by the film and wrote a script based on it. That film was none other than “Bangaru Pichuka” a full length comedy! It can be surely called as an experimental film. It is a love story between a Rich guy who acts like a poor person and a poor girl who pretends to be a rich lady. They wanted to cast Vijayanirmala as the heroine. Even in their earlier project Sakshi, Vijayanirmala was the heroine. She readily agreed for acting in the second venture as well. When it came to Hero, they asked for Krishna. Sakshi had Krishna in the lead role but later he got the James Bond image and was quite busy.
It was then Bapu and Ramana saw a handsome guy. He was studying Engineering in Madras and was also an upcoming singer in Films. This handsome guy was already creating ripples in Playback Singing all around Tamil Nadu with his unique and expressive voice. Bapu-Ramana decided that this lean and elegant guy would be the hero of the film and wanted to start filming. But things went haywire and nothing went as planned. This lean guy was replaced by Chandra Mohan. Though the lean guy lost the acting chance in the film, he got a golden opportunity to sing for Chandra Mohan. Though the film was not successful, the songs were great hits.
The lean guy who sang for Chandra Mohan is none other than present greatest playback singer, actor, host and dubbing artist- Sripathi Panditharadhyula Balasubhrahmanyam. After losing an acting chance in Bangaru Pichuka, Balu appeared first time on screen in a song “Happy Birthday To you” from Mohammad Bin Tughluq released in 1972. What happened later is a different story altogether- where Balu enthralled the audience acting even in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada feature films and serials!
That was how the legendary singer SPB became an actor by chance and a singer by choice- thereby excelling in both the departments!
ALSO READ: The Amazing Other Side of SPB