S. P. B. Charan

Biography

Sripathi Panditharadhyula Balasubrahmanyam Charan, credited as S. P. B. Charan, is an Indian playback singer and actor who works predominantly works in Tamil cinema and Telugu cinema.
He is the son of the singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. He first worked as a playback singer in Tamil and Telugu. He made his acting debut in Maha Edabidangi (1999) and is best known for his performance in the Saroja (2008). He has established the film production company Capital Film Works, and produced Chennai 600028 (2007), Aaranya Kaandam (2012) and others.

Early life

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Charan was born to the singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and his wife Savitri in a Telugu family on 7 January 1972. He was raised in Chennai, India. He studied at Asan Memorial School, Chennai, where actor Ajith Kumar also studied and was a school friend. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Pace University in New York, United States in 1994 and completed a two-year course in film and television.

Career

Charan began working as a playback singer in 1997 with "Deepangal Pesum" from Devathai, with music composed by Ilaiyaraaja. About being the son of an icon, he stated: "my voice sounds so much like appa, people might not want to use a similar voice. When SPB himself is rocking, why would composers need his clone?". He has sung for composers M. M. Keeravani, A. R. Rahman and Devi Sri Prasad. Charan's most popular songs include "Nagila Nagila" from Alai Payuthey, "Mellaga" from Varsham, "Nenu Nenuga Lene" from Manmadhudu, "I Love you Shailaja" from Mazhai, "Please Sir" from Boys, "Maaja Maaja" from Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, "Oru Nanban Irundhal" from Enakku 20 Unakku 18, "O Shanti" from Vaaranam Aayiram, "Nee Naan" from Mankatha. In 2010, he recorded a song in Kadhal 2 Kalyanam, composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. He also recorded alongside his father for the first time in Aadukalam, for which they both won the Vijay Award for Best Male Playback Singer.
Charan first acted with his father in a film called Maha Yedabidangi, directed by K. S. L. Swamy, but the film was not released. Balachander's son Kailasam approached him to act in the television show Oonjal, produced by K. Balachander and directed by Sundar K. Vijayan. It was followed by Radan's Annamalai. He also starred in a TV serial named Bommaigal in Tamil and Akka Chellulu in Telugu. His first release was the Kannada film Hudugigagi in 2003, directed by B. Manjunath. In 2008, he played one of the lead roles in Venkat Prabhu's Saroja. On his performance, Sify wrote: "S.P.B Charan as Jagapathy Babu suits the role and is fantastic". He acted in Va, in which he played Shiva's prospective brother-in-law. He acted in two Tamil films Vanavarayan Vallavarayan and Vizhithiru.

Other works

Charan established the film production company Capital Film Works, in 2002. Their first production was Unnai Charanadainthen, in which Charan played the lead role, alongside his friend Venkat Prabhu. The film, which notably featured musical score by Charan's father, Balasubrahmanyam, received four Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. Charan revealed that he decided to produce the film after hearing Samuthirakani's narration. He further produced the Jayam Ravi-starrer Mazhai (2005), a remake of the Telugu film Varsham, which was a failure at the box office. His next production was Venkat Prabhu's directorial debut Chennai 600028 (2007), featured eleven newcomers in the lead and became one of the year's most successful Tamil films. In 2011, his sixth production Aaranya Kaandam, was released to critical acclaim and became noted for getting 52 cuts by the regional Central Board of Film Certification. Although it did not achieve the expected box office success, Charan won a National Film Award as a producer of the film. His next production was Thirudan Police, by another debutant, Caarthick Raju.
SP Charan designed and produced SPB50 concert tour with his father SP Balasubrahmanyam and was felicitated for his 50 years of journey in the industry. The concert tour held in Toronto, Russia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and few places in the United States like Seattle, Los Angeles, New Jersey. Other singers like KS Chithra, Kalpana Raghavendra, SP Sailaja were part of the series.
Starting from Dubai expo 2020, SP Charan has been part of Ilayaraaja's shows and has accompanied him in various other shows that has been conducted in United Kingdom, the US, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Muscat and in various cities in India including Yuva Dasara Mysore 2024.
As a tribute to his father, he toured "Simply SPB" in 2023 and performed in various venues across the United States in many of the same venues where his father had performed before. Singers SP Sailaja, Sai Vignesh and Srisha were part of the series. An event in the series also happened in Bangalore, where singers in the Kannada industry, including Rajesh Krishnan, VijayaPrakash, Anuradha Bhat, also performed.
In June 2025, on the occasion of Lal Salam movie release in OTT platform Sun Nxt, the music director AR Rahman published in his social media handles that, SP Charan's song 'Ena senji Ena senji ena valaccha" will be part of this release version.
In 2025, he has been part of stage shows performed by music director Deva in India and Australia along with Srikanth Deva, Anuradha Sriram.

Personal life

In 1996, he and childhood friends Venkat Prabhu and Premgi Amaren set up a music band called Next Generation, which also had Yugendran and Thaman as members.
Charan underwent a weight loss in late 2010. In response to speculation, he stated it was in response to becoming health-conscious.