Veteran playback singer and actress R. (Raavu) Balasaraswathi Devi died at her residence in Hyderabad on October 15, 2025, aged 97, according to family and media reports. Widely credited with introducing playback singing to Telugu cinema, she is also remembered as All India Radio’s first “light music” singer, reflecting an early career that bridged radio and film from the mid-1930s. Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan offered condolences, noting her foundational role in South Indian film music.
Beginning as a child artiste in 1936 with “Sati Anasuya” and “Bhakta Dhruva,” Balasaraswathi Devi later worked in Tamil films under director K. Subramaniam. A landmark came with “Bhagya Lakshmi” (1943), where her song for actress Kamala Kotnis is cited as the first instance of playback singing in Telugu, a practice that soon became standard across industries. Reports note a decades-long career spanning Telugu and Tamil cinema, with hundreds of recordings across languages.
