'Play SPB songs at 6 pm on Thursday': Director Bharathiraja calls for mass prayer

Since August 5, National Award winning singer SP Balasubrahmanyam has been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Chennai for COVID-19. The singer has been admitted to the critical care unit where he’s being given round the clock monitoring by doctors. Director Bharathiraja in his latest press release has called for a “mass prayer” by the singer’s fans on August 20, to enable his speedy recovery. In order to be a part of it, fans spread across the globe will have to play SPB’s songs at 6.00 pm on Thursday and pray that he recovers soon.

Singer SP Balasubrahmanyam with his extraordinary voice has enthralled fans for decades, recording over 40,000 songs in 16 Indian languages over the period of his career.

“Let's all pray to Mother Nature to give SPB to us. Ilaiyaraaja, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vairamuthu, AR Rahman, film actors and actresses, directors, musicians, FEFSI members, producers, theatre-owners, distributors and media persons besides billions of SPB fans across the globe will play SPB songs at 6 pm on 20 August at their respective places and pray for his speedy recovery. I invite everyone to be part of the mass prayer (sic),” he has written in his statement.

The veteran director has also recalled the last time Tamil cinema fans came together for a mass prayer for the health of another venerated figure. “When Ponmana Semmal MGR was hospitalised, we did such a prayer. He was back hale and hearty. Similarly we will pray for the recovery of SPB now,” he wrote.

“SPB knows only to sow seeds of love. He is a wonderful artiste. He should be back amongst us soon. We will get him back,” Bharathiraja added.

According to SPB’s son SP Charan, who has been regularly updating the media and fans on his father's condition, the singer is still on ventilator. “He continues to be on the ventilator. He is being scrutinised by the medical team at MGM Health Centre and he is being taken care of really, really well. We are confident that your prayers are working – they are helping us, and helping [put him] on a recovery path. So, please keep the prayer coming. We thank you as a family for all the love, concern and prayers. Keep them coming, thank you so very much,” Charan said in a video message.