80th Birthday Celebrations Of Rao Bala Saraswathi Devi

Sangam Academy is celebrating the 80th birthday celebrations today of Telugu cinema's first playback singer, Rao Bala Saraswathi Devi. Born in 1928 on 28th August in Guntur, Devi sang her first solo for HMV company at the age of 6. There was no looking back after that.

Devi created history by doing the playback in 1940s for a movie called Bhagya Laxmi. Those were the days when artists used to act and sing themselves for their roles in movies.

She has sung for more than 2,000 songs in South-Indian films till date. She also sang a Simhalese (Sri Lanka) song. In the 1940s when All-India Radio launched bhakti songs, Devi was the first to sing Devi songs. She also acted in several Telugu and Tamil films.

As a token of respect to this veteran singer-cum-actor, Padmabhushan Dr. K I Vara Prasad Reddy will preside over the function as chief guest, and Dr. Mangalampally Balamurali Krishna will honour her with a shawl. Superstar Krishna, Vijaya Nirmala, Suseela, Padmasri S P Balasubramaniam and other dignitaries will preside over the function.

Please contact Sanjay Kishore, Sangam Academy, at 2756-5050/98480-91917 for further details.