MUMBAI: P. B. Sreenivas will always be remembered for crooning thousands of chartbusters in southern languages. And though he is not with us today – he passed away on 14 April, 2013 – he still lives on in the hearts of his fans through his music.

Here are some interesting facts about the singer.

Mohammed Rafi was his favourite singer. In fact, when Emani Sankara Sastry, a famous veena player and family friend introduced him to S. S. Vasan, owner of Gemini Studios, Sreenivas sang ‘Huye Hum Jinke Liye Barbad’ from the film ‘Deedar’ (1951), a super hit track, originally sung by Mohammed Rafi.

An astrologer once told Sreenivas’ father that the singer did not have a bright future in music. But, instead of believing the astrologer's words, Sreenivas’ father believed in his son's talent, and Sreenivas went on to become a famous singer.

Sreenivas was also a poet. He was fluent in eight languages - Telugu (His mother tongue), Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, English, Sanskrit and Urdu, and wrote poems in all these languages.

Sreenivas wrote and composed 'Man To Moon' and ‘Moon To God' in 1969, praising Neil Armstrong’s landing on the Moon. The latter was co-written with S. Janaki, and the gramophone records of these tracks were sent to the United States President at the time- Richard Nixon, and Armstrong.

He always carried at least half a dozen colour pens in his pocket. Why he did that is not certain, but it could be something to do with the big book of lyrics he always had with him.