Nagoor Babu

Biography

Nagoor Babu, known by his stage name Mano, is an Indian playback singer, voice-over artist, actor, and composer. Mano has recorded songs for film and private various Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Tulu, Konkani and Assamese films. He has also performed for over 3000 live concerts across the continents. He has recorded many songs for music director Ilaiyaraaja. Mano is also recognized for being as the full-fledged dubbing artist for Rajinikanth in Telugu from Muthu (1995) onwards.

Early days and debut

He learned Carnatic Music from Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, and acted in a number of stage plays before debuting as an actor, where he acted in 15 films in total, with Rangoon Rowdy being one of them.
His debut as a playback singer was in 1979, when he went to Madras to work with music director M. S. Viswanathan, with whom he worked for 3 years as an assistant.
He worked with director Chakaravarthy in 1982, producing dummy versions of songs, before the actual singers came in to do the recording. In 1984, he worked with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Susheela as the song needed a third voice for the film Karpoora Deepam. Shortly thereafter he worked on a hit Kannada film for Hamsalekha, and subsequently sang in a film for Ilaiyaraaja, after which his independent career took off.
It was Ilaiyaraaja who urged him to use the name, Mano, instead of his birth name - Nagoor Babu - as there already was a popular artist by the name of Nagore Hanifa, and this would prevent any mixups.
Taking the criticism in his stride, Mano went on recording as many as 500 songs with Ilaiyaraaja and slowly branched out to sing for other Tamil composers as well.

Voice-over dubbing

The year 1995 also saw another face of Mano as the voice-over dubbing artist in the Tamil film industry. He dubbed for almost all Rajinikanth starrers in Telugu. His voice became almost synonymous with Rajinikanth and was in great demand by all the directors and producers. He also dubbed for Kamal Haasan in some movies in Telugu.

Television works

Mano has worked on various television programs, most notably as a judge and host for a variety of singing shows. Notable among them are Super Singer, Super Singer Junior, Star Singer, Pillalu Piduglu (as host), cook with comali season 7 and more.
Mano also hosts Manathodu Mano – a musical talk show on Jaya TV.

Personal life

Mano was born into a Muslim family from Andhra Pradesh. He is married to Jameela in 1985. His son Shakir is an actor and has starred in Naanga (2012).

As actor

Telugu
1979: Needa
1979: Rangoon Rowdy as Raju
1980: Ketugadu
1982: O Adadi O Magadu
1983: Kalyana Veena
1992: Hello Darling
1999: Vichithram as Narada
2003: Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu as himself
2015: Shivam as Tanu's father
2021: Crazy Uncles as Reddy
Tamil
1991: Sigaram as himself
1992: Singaravelan as Mano
1993 Porantha Veeda Puguntha Veeda as singer in song "Veettukku Vilakku"
2003: Enakku 20 Unakku 18 as himself
2014: Vetri Selvan as Ananthakrishnan
2023: Single Shankarum Smartphone Simranum as Bhaskaran
2025: Kadhalikka Neramillai as Chandramohan
2025: Vattakhanal