Voice, acting, and beyond: Mano’s four-decade film sojourn

“Singing is not just a passion, it is like the air I breathe,” says singer Mano, reflecting on his journey, spanning four decades, in the music industry. Yet Mano's initial interest was acting, not singing.

For Mano, who was named Nagoor Babu, grew up watching his mother, a theatre artiste, and father, a harmonium player, recite dialogues and practice their scenes at home in Vijayawada, acting, reciting poetry, and singing came naturally. He started performing in plays at the age of seven.

“Whenever I received a payment, in those days (early 1970s) ₹1 or ₹2, I used to be overjoyed,” recalls Mano, now 60, during a conversation with The Hindu in Vijayawada. His first tryst with films came in 1979 when his mother, Shaheeda, was offered a character artiste role in Dasari Narayana Rao’s film ‘Needa’. In the same movie, he was also offered a child artiste role, which piqued his interest in acting.

After Needa, he appeared as a child artiste in films like ‘Rangoon Rowdy’, ‘Ketugaadu’, ‘Jathara’. However, destiny had other plans for him. In 1979, when he was playing the heroine’s brother character role in the film ‘O Aadadi O Magadu’, singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, who was roped in to sing a song, couldn't arrive at the studio on time and gave a new singing opportunity to Mano.

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