Background
Suribabu was born on February 22, 1915 in Bommaluru village of Gudivada taluq, Andhra Pradesh.
Suribabu was born on February 22, 1915 in Bommaluru village of Gudivada taluq, Andhra Pradesh.
He had a peculiar bold voice and was called Kanchu Kantham Suri Babu. With enthusiasm in drama, he ran away from home and reached Gadwal and played few characters in Samsthanam drama company. He returned to Guntur and joined the Balamithra Sabha owned by Dantu Venkata Krishnaiah.
During those days Kopparapu Subbarao was training children in music and acting.
He played many roles and soon became one of the finest actors. He established his own drama troupe named Balakrishna Nataka Samajam in 1931 in Gudivada.
They played Bhakta Vijayam, Maya Madhusudhana with huge sets. However they met with heavy losses.
He subsequently shifted to Tenali and joined Satyanarayana Natya Mandali in 1936.
They played Bhukailas, Kurukshetram, Vipranarayana, Tulabaram like puranic plays and earn reputation. He played variety of roles like Narada, Dharmaraju,Ashwadhama,Vipranarayana, Bilwamangal, Subudhi, Ramadasu, Dharmarayudu and many more. His voice is metallic and used to be heard long distances clearly.
His singing poems used to be simplified and used to be understood by the lay persons and draw huge crowds.
Many shows used to last the entire night. He acted in some Telugu films and used to sing his own songs.Many movie music directors used to take his help while tuning for padyalu (poems).The famous “manikyaveena” slokam sung by Ghantasala in the movie Mahakavi Kalidasu was composed by Suribabu
He played before Mysore Maharajah Durbar in 1946 and got facilitated.
He was ceremoniously honoured with titles "Kala Visharada", "Gana Gandharva" in Tenali in 1957. He died on February 12, 1968.