Nagoor Babu, known by his stage name Mano, is an Indian playback singer,
voice-over artist
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
, actor, producer,
television anchor and composer. He is a recipient of several awards such as the
Nandi Awards
The Nandi Awards are the awards that recognise the excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. Presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the award is named after ...
from the Government of Andhra Pradesh and
Kalaimamani
The Kalaimamani is the highest civilian award in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. These awards are given by the ''Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram'' (literature, music and theatre), a unit of the Directorate of Art and Culture, Government of ...
award from the Government of Tamil Nadu.
Mano has recorded more than 1,000 songs for film and private various
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
,
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
,
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
,
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
,
Oriya and
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
films. He has also performed for over 3000 live concerts across the continents. Notably, he has recorded 500 songs for music director
Ilayaraja
Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one of ...
. Mano is also recognized for being as the full-fledged dubbing artist for
Rajanikanth
Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 160 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannad ...
in Telugu from
''Muthu'' (1995) onwards.
Early life and background
Mano was born as Nagoor Babu in
Tenali
Tenali is a city in Guntur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the headquarters of Tenali mandal and Tenali revenue division. The city is renowned for art, culture, drama and hence, it is called ''Andhra ...
, Guntur district of
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
. His father Rasool, was a musician in the
All India Radio
All or ALL may refer to:
Language
* All, an indefinite pronoun in English
* All, one of the English determiners
* Allar language (ISO 639-3 code)
* Allative case (abbreviated ALL)
Music
* All (band), an American punk rock band
* ''All'' (All ...
, Vijayawada division and his mother Shaheeda, was a popular Stage actress. Inspired heavily by his mother, Mano joined the stage theater and played many historical characters which also involved singing live songs in his own voice. He soon started taking formal training of
carnatic classical music under the vocalist
Nedunuri Krishnamurthy
Nedunuri Krishnamurthy (10 October 1927 – 8 December 2014) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist. . Subsequently, he started his film acting career in the late 1970s and acted in about 40 movies as child artist. He featured as a supporting character in films such as ''
Rangoon Rowdy
''Rangoon Rowdy'' is a 1979 Telugu drama film directed by Dasari Narayana Rao and produced by Vadde Sobhanadri under Vijaya Madhavi Pictures. The film was presented by Vadde Kishore. The film stars Mahanati Savitri, Krishnam Raju, Jaya Prada, M ...
''.
Career
Mano has sung almost 30,000 songs for films and private in 15 languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Oriya, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.
Early days and debut
While in 1977, Mano was shooting for a Telugu film for which the veteran
M. S. Viswanathan was the music composer, it so happened that the original singer
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (4 June 1946 – 25 September 2020), also referred to as SPB or SP Balu or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, actor, music composer, dubbing artist, and film producer. He is wi ...
who was supposed to sing a song could not show up to the recording studio. Accidentally, Mano was asked to show his singing skills by the composer's assistant who was a good friend of Mano's father. Mano rendered a few of the Ghazal songs much to the appreciation of audience present there and the composer himself. From then on, Mano was signed by Viswanathan to sing few track songs upon which the main singer would sing in the final version. In 1982, Mano approached the famous composer
Chakravarthy seeking a chance for his brother who was upcoming as a Tabla player. However, Chakravarthy insisted that he wanted an assistant like him to sing track songs. Mano, joined his troop and assisted for almost 2 years. In his tenure with Chakravarthy, Mano sang over 2000 tracks for almost all the leading singers.
Name change and association with Ilaiyaraaja
Before beginning his long standing career with Ilaiyaraaja, Nagoor Babu was rechristened as "Mano" to avoid clash of names with the already established singer
Nagore E. M. Hanifa
Nagore Esmail Mohammed Hanifa (25 December 1925 – 8 April 2015) was a Tamil Muslim lyricist, playback singer and politician. He was known as ''Isai Murasu'' for his deep stentorian voice.
His signature song was "Iraivanidam Kaiyendungal". It ...
. The name was selected and christened by Ilaiyaraaja himself in his first song "Annae Annae nee enna sonnae" in the Tamil film Fazil's "Poo Vizhi vaasalilae" title song. Mano went on to record many memorable songs under the same composer for his Tamil and Telugu films. In 1987, Mano got a big break by singing popular songs for the film ''Enga Ooru Pattukkaran''. The songs "Shenbagame Shenbagame" and "Madhura Marikozhundu Vasam" became instant hits among the listeners. However, he also faced criticism from the critics who dubbed that his voice was an absolute clone to
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (4 June 1946 – 25 September 2020), also referred to as SPB or SP Balu or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, actor, music composer, dubbing artist, and film producer. He is wi ...
.
![Mano (singer)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Mano_%28singer%29.jpg)
Taking the criticism in his stride, Mano went on recording as many as 500 successful songs with Ilaiyaraaja and slowly branched out to sing for other Tamil composers as well.
He recorded maximum number of duet songs with
K. S. Chithra,
Swarnalatha and
S. Janaki
Sistla Janaki (born 23 April 1938) is an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer from Andhra Pradesh. She is referred to respectfully as "Janaki Amma" and Nightingale of South India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in ...
. He simultaneously sang many hundreds of songs in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film industries. His teaming up with
Hamsalekha
Gangaraju (born June 23, 1951), professionally known as Hamsalekha, is an Indian film composer and a songwriter who works in South Indian cinema, predominantly in the Kannada film industry since the late 1980s. He is also a screenplay writer, di ...
in Kannada produced many chart buster numbers which are considered evergreen. His few Malayalam, Hindi and Oriya songs also were well received.
Voice modulation and its success
The late 1980s saw Mano experimenting with his voice through some modulations and it indeed worked in his favor to silence his critics. In the 1988 Kamal-starrer Soorasamharam, he first experimented with his voice encouraged by his mentor Ilayaraja (who wanted him to sound different in the song - Vedhalam Vandhirukuthu). He took inspiration for that song from the evergreen RD Burman number Mehbooba Mehbooba from Sholay and the song went on to be a big hit and he was much appreciated for the voice modulation. He later followed the same style for some more songs especially those with Arabic tunes. In 1994, he was approached by
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...
to sing the duet song "
Mukkabla" with
Swarnalatha for the movie ''
Kadhalan
''Kadhalan'' ( ) is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language romantic thriller film written and directed by S. Shankar and produced by K. T. Kunjumon. The film stars Prabhu Deva and Nagma (in her major Tamil cinema debut), while Vadivelu, Raghuvaran, ...
''. Mano was asked to sing in a very different style by the composer and he took the
R. D. Burman
Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director who is considered one of the most influential composers of India. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. Burman did major work w ...
route and the Mukkala song went on to become a huge blockbuster which broke all the regional barriers and reached out to the entire country. He recorded the same song in the Telugu and Hindi versions which also were well received. Following this stupendous success in experimentation, many music directors cashed in his newfound fame and made him sing in the same style. Some of the songs he modulated his voice for are "Aye Shabba Aye Shabba" for
Vidyasagar's ''Karna'', "I Love You" and "Azhagiya Laila" for Sirpy's ''
Ullathai Allitha
''Ullathai Allitha'' () is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film directed by Sundar C. The film stars Karthik, Rambha and Goundamani, with Manivannan, Jai Ganesh, Senthil, and Jyothi Meena in supporting roles. It revolves around a ...
'' and "Thillana Thillana" for Rahman's ''
Muthu''. He has also done a few semi-classical numbers such as ''Athma Varaiyo''. He has also sung a few Hindi film songs for
Gulshan Kumar
Gulshan Kumar Dua (5 May 1951 12 August 1997), was an Indian businessman, film and music producer who was the founder of the Super Cassettes Industries Limited (T-Series) music label in the Bollywood industry. He founded T-Series in the 1980s ...
in ''Aaya Sanam'', ''
Aaja Meri Jaan
''Aaja Meri Jaan'' () is a 1993 Hindi-language romantic thriller film, written by Pawan Sethi and directed by Ketan Anand. It stars Krishan Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Pran, Prem Chopra, and Deven Verma.
Plot
In the opening scene, a priest is sta ...
'', ', and ''Chor Aur Chand''.
Voice-over dubbing
The year 1995 also saw another face of Mano as the voice-over dubbing artist in the Telugu film industry. He dubbed his voice 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 his voice for
Kamal Haasan
Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...
in some movies in Telugu.He also dubbed for Akshay kumar in Galatta Kalyanam(Atrangi re).
Music composing and producing
Mano has worked as a music composer for the 2008 released Telugu film ''
Sombheri''. He got good response for his compositions. He also tried his hands on releasing Tamil film ''
Azhagiya Tamil Magan
''Azhagiya Tamil Magan'' ( Adorable Tamil son) is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language psychological action thriller film written and directed by Bharathan, written by S. K. Jeeva and produced by Swargachitra Appachan. The film stars actor Vijay in a ...
'' (2007) as ''Mahaa Muduru'' in 2010 starring
Vijay and
Shriya Saran
Shriya Saran Bhatnagar (; born 11 September 1982) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi-language films. Although Saran aspired to become a well-known dancer, she became an actress with her film debut in 2001 ...
. The film, however, flopped at the box-office. He also produced two movies dubbed from Telugu to Tamil ''Madurai Thimiru'' and ''Kumaran Rajini Rasigan'' (dubbed versions of ''
Yogi
A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a sannyasin or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions.A. K. Banerjea (2014), ''Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha'', Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. xxiii, 297-299, 331 Th ...
'' and ''
Bujjigadu'') under the studio name, "Lord Venkateswara Productions" and "Mano Media Entertainments" respectively.
Television works
Mano is hosting ''Manathodu Mano'' – a musical talk show in
Jaya TV
Jaya TV HD is a Tamil language satellite television channel based in Chennai, India. Jaya TV HD is also broadcast to the expatriate Tamil community via various media partnerships. Hemant Sahai of HSA had Jaya TV HD as his first client. Jaya TV ...
. He is also one of the permanent judging panel for
Vijay TV
Star Vijay is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly Star India), a subsidiary of Asianet Star Communications. The channel's headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Star Vijay chang ...
's musical reality show ''
Airtel Super Singer Junior
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, ...
'' along with
Chitra and
Malgudi Subha
Malgudi Subha (born 17 October 1965; also spelled as Malgadi Shuba) is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. In a career spanning two decades, she sang more than 3000 songs.
She b ...
. He also co-judges the musical show ''Idea Super Singer'' on
Maa TV
Star Maa (formerly Maa TV) is an Indian Telugu language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The channel telecasts Telugu language programmes such as serials, reali ...
. He also co-judges the musical show ''
Sun Singer S6'' (2019) with
Karthik and
Remya Nambesan. Since 2019, he co-judges popular Telugu television reality-comedy series
''Jabardasth'' and ''
Extra Jabardasth
''Extra Jabardasth'' is an Indian Telugu language, Telugu-language sketch comedy television show. It is an extended version of the comedy show ''Jabardasth (TV series), Jabardasth''.It was conceived and directed by Sanjeev K Kumar. The show is ...
'' alongside
Roja
Roja may refer to:
* ''Roja'' (film), a 1992 Tamil-language film by director Mani Ratnam
* ''Roja'' (soundtrack), a soundtrack album from the film
* Roja Selvamani
Roja Selvamani (born Sri Latha Reddy; 17 November 1972), also known as R. K. ...
. In 2021, he is one of the judges of Tamil reality-music show
''Rockstar''.
Personal life
Mano is married to Jameela in 1985. They have three children. Shakir, Rafi, and Sofia. They both have made their debut in singing for the movie ''Kumaran Rajini Rasigan''. The elder son Shakir is being introduced as a lead actor in a couple of Tamil films. Mano loves listening to ghazals by
Mehdi Hassan and
Ghulam Ali.
Filmography
As actor
;Malayalam
*1992: ''Soorya Manasam'' - playback Singer
;Telugu
* 1979: ''Needa''
* 1979: ''
Rangoon Rowdy
''Rangoon Rowdy'' is a 1979 Telugu drama film directed by Dasari Narayana Rao and produced by Vadde Sobhanadri under Vijaya Madhavi Pictures. The film was presented by Vadde Kishore. The film stars Mahanati Savitri, Krishnam Raju, Jaya Prada, M ...
'' as Raju
* 1980: ''Ketugadu''
* 1982: ''O Adadi O Magadu''
*1992: ''Hello Darling''
* 2003: ''
Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu
''Enakku 20 Unakku 18'' () is a 2003 Indian romantic comedy film written and directed by Jyothi Krishna. This film is a remake of the Hindi film '' Kuch Kuch Hota Hai''. The film stars Tarun, Trisha, and Shriya Saran. It was filmed simultaneous ...
'' as himself
* 2015: ''
Shivam'' as Tanu's father
*2021: ''Crazy Uncles'' as Reddy
;Tamil
* 1992: ''
Singaravelan
''Singaravelan'' is a 1992 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by R. V. Udayakumar from a story by Panchu Arunachalam. The film stars Kamal Haasan and Khushbu. It revolves around a villager who is tasked with locatin ...
'' as Mano
*1993: ''
Porantha Veeda Puguntha Veeda
''Porantha Veeda Puguntha Veeda'' () is a 1993 Tamil language comedy drama film directed by V. Sekhar. The film stars Sivakumar and Bhanupriya, with Vadivukkarasi, Goundamani, Kovai Sarala, Senthil, S. S. Chandran and Charle playing supporting ...
'' as singer in song "Veettukku Vilakku"
* 2003: ''
Enakku 20 Unakku 18
''Enakku 20 Unakku 18'' () is a 2003 Indian romantic comedy film written and directed by Jyothi Krishna. This film is a remake of the Hindi film ''Kuch Kuch Hota Hai''. The film stars Tarun, Trisha, and Shriya Saran. It was filmed simultaneous ...
'' as himself
* 2014: ''
Vetri Selvan
''Vetri Selvan'' is a 2014 Indian Tamil language drama thriller film written and directed by Rudhran. Produced on Srushti Cinemas banner and Silicon Studios, the film stars Ajmal Ameer and Radhika Apte, while singer Mano and Sheriff appear in pi ...
'' as Ananthakrishnan
As dubbing artist
Discography
Awards
* Mano received the prestigious "
Kalaimaamani" Award
from the Government of Tamil Nadu also State Award of Tamil Nadu for the song "Thuliyela" from ''
Chinna Thambi
''Chinna Thambi'' () is a 1991 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by P. Vasu. The film stars Prabhu as the titular character, an uneducated village simpleton and Khushbu as Nandini, a homeschooled wealthy girl. Man ...
''.
* 1991 –
Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Male Playback – For Various films.
* 1997 –
Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer - Telugu
''Filmfare'' is an Indian English language, English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of Indian most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, r ...
– ''Ruku Ruku Rukmini'' – ''
Pelli''
* He has also been awarded by many popular cultural associations in India.
* He received the Gold Bracelet and "Gana Samrat" from APNA foundation Atlanta, USA on 14 April 2008
* He got
Dr.Ghantasala award from Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
References
External links
*
Mano interview at Idlebrain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mano
Living people
1965 births
Indian male playback singers
Tamil playback singers
Kannada playback singers
Telugu playback singers
Bollywood playback singers
Singers from Andhra Pradesh
Male actors from Andhra Pradesh
People from Guntur district
20th-century Indian singers
Male actors in Tamil cinema
Indian male voice actors
Indian male film actors
Film producers from Andhra Pradesh
20th-century Indian male actors
Male actors in Telugu cinema
21st-century Indian male actors
20th-century Indian male singers