RAO BALASARASWATI DEVI-GREAT SINGER WHOSE CAREER WAS CUT SHORT.

 

She was born in the year 1928 at Madras into a Telugu Brahmin family. Her grandfather was an advocate and used to practice at the Madras High Court.

Actress Vijayanirmala is her maternal uncles daughter (mena mamas daughter), and actress Jayasudha is another maternal uncles granddaughter.

She did not study up to any higher class but was taught by an Anglo Indian tutor at home. They had a movie theatre named Ratnamahal at Guntur and therefore they migrated there in the year 1934 when she was just 6 years old.

Due to the influence of her family, she learnt music at a very young age. Her father was proficient in Carnatic music and used to sing while playing on the harmonium. He taught her music from the age of 6 years but she started singing at the age of 4 even before that.

Her education had been in music. For some time she learnt Carnatic music and then her father took her to Bombay and made her a disciple of Vasant Desai for learning Hindustani music. By 1940 when she was just 12 years old, she became proficient in music.

In 1936, their family converted the movie theatre into theatre for plays. They displayed many plays there. Whenever there was an opportunity for a song in any of the plays, Balasaraswati was rendering the songs. When she was just 4 years old, Balasaraswati gave her first performance on stage while someone carried her. At one such occasion HMV company representatives listened to her song and were impressed. They then they signed an agreement with her father and she sung 2 songs for them which gave her a good name in music.

After listening to her singing C.Pullayya gave her an opportunity to act and sing in his film Sati Anasuya in 1935. She was then only 7 years old. For the film she received a remuneration of Rs 200 then. The film also brought her an appreciation for her acting and music. She was the first ever Telugu movie playback singer.

Then in the year 1937 she played the lead role in the Tamil Film “Balayogini”. The film was released in the year 1937 when she was just 9 years old and brought her further appreciation. Her original name was Saraswati Devi and with this film the prefix Bala was added to her name and was made Bala Saraswati. She received a remuneration of Rs 1500 for the film.

Then she acted in the film named “Illalu” produced by Goodavalli Ramabrahmam. In the film she acted as a pair to S.Rajeswarrao who later became a famous music director. They both sang their songs in that film.

In 1941-42 the film Bhakta Tukaram was made simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil where she acted as the daughter of Tukaram. She sang in the movie in both the languages. She was just 14 years old then.

The Tamil movie “dancing Girl” with MG Ramachandran in the lead was made between 1940-43. She sang all the songs in the film whose music director was S Rajeswrarao.

In 1944 her family relocated to Madras possibly because she was acting in films. In that year once she went to the Guindy Race course along with her uncle and aunt to watch horse racing. She was then 15 years old. The 4^th son of the Raja of Venkatagiri Rao Pradyumna Krishna Suryarao adopted by the Rani of Kolanka, also came to the races on that day. Some of his horses were also running in the race.

Rao Pradyumna Krishna Suryarao saw her there and came to know about her singing and film acting and his family visited Balasaraswati’s home and said that they came to listen to her singing. After hearing to her, the Raja asked her father for her hand in marriage. He was then 34 years of age and was already married once while she was just 15 years old, but they just could not refuse the proposal and agreed to it.

They got married 1944. Before the marriage the Raja promised her that her singing would go on as before. However, when an article came out in the papers along with her photo praising her singing and acting, he felt insulted and forbade her to sing anymore. However, she went on singing without his knowledge and sang some 2000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Sinhala. She sand many songs pairing with S Rajeswrarao between the years 1940 and 1950. She completely stopped singing from the year 1958.

Both All India Radio Madras in 1944 and All India radio Vijayawada in 1948 have first started with her singing.

Instituted by Raja Rao Pradyumna Krishna Suryarao , the Kolanka Cup is the pride of Madras and also Polo. Made of silver and marvellously carved it stands 6 feet tall and is the tallest sports trophy in the world as per the Guinness Book of World Records. He was adopted by the Rani of Kolanka. He presented the Madras Polo & Riders Club with the Kolanka cup. The last match for the Kolanka cup was played in 1998 and since then, the Kolanka cup was stored.