MUMBAI: 82-year-old veteran playback singer PB Srinivas breathed his last on 14 April at his Saidapet residence in Chennai.

Prativadi Bhayankara Srinivas, who sang over 2000 songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, was not keeping well for the past few days. He died in a Chennai hospital due to heart attack. His last rites will be performed in Chennai on 15 April. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and other leaders condoled the death of the legend. Born in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, Srinivas made Chennai his home for his career that lasted over six decades.

His genre of singing included Carnatic music and ghazal. He was fluent in eight languages that included Hindi, Urdu, English and Sanskrit. He had also penned several ghazals in Telugu.

He has sung at least 300 super hit numbers for the super star Dr Raj Kumar. In 50's, 60's and 70's, if it was Dr.Rajkumar, then there had to be songs sung by Dr.PBS. Rajkumar himself had once said that his true identity was Srinivas. His association with Kannada legendary super star Dr.Raj Kumar was highly appreciated by critics, fans and the industry.

He had also sang in 'Minsaara Kanavu' with AR Rahman for 'Maana Madurai'. Then came 'En Uyire’ in Mani Ratnam's 'Uyire..' (the Tamil version of 'Dil Se..'). Srinivas had sung for music directors Viswanathan Ramamoorthy, K V Mahadevan of earlier decades and present day directors like Ilayaraja, Deva, Vidyasagar and Bharadwaj.

He made his début in 1952 in Gemini's Hindi film Mr Sampat, where his song "Aji Hum Bharat Ki Naari", a duet with Geeta Dutt, became popular. In 1955 he also sang in the Malayalam film Harishcandra. His first solo hit came in the movie Prema Pasam in which he also sang a duet with P. Susheela. In the Tamil industry, he has sung the maximum number of songs for Gemini Ganesan. The most memorable hit of this duo was 'Nilave ennidam nerungathe'. He sang the popular duet in Hindi Chanda Se Hoga Wo Pyaara (with Lata Mangeshkar) in the film Main Bhi Ladki Hoon in 1964.In Tamil his voice was more used for actors Gemini Ganeshan, Muthuraman, Ravichandran, Jaishankar.