Nagoor Babu

Nagoor Babu, known by his stage name Mano, is an Indian playback singer, voice-over artist, actor, and composer. Mano has recorded songs for film and private various Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Tulu, Konkani and Assamese films. He has also performed for over 3000 live concerts across the continents. Mano is also recognized for being as the full-fledged dubbing artist for Rajinikanth in Telugu from Muthu onwards.

It was Ilaiyaraaja who urged him to use the name, Mano, instead of his birth name - Nagoor Babu - as there already was a popular artist by the name of Nagore Hanifa, and this would prevent any mixups.

Taking the criticism in his stride, Mano went on recording as many as 500 songs with Ilaiyaraaja and slowly branched out to sing for other Tamil composers as well.

Voice-over dubbing The year 1995 also saw another face of Mano as the voice-over dubbing artist in the Tamil film industry. He dubbed his voice for almost all Rajinikanth starrers in Telugu. His voice became almost synonymous with Rajinikanth and was in great demand by all the directors and producers. He also dubbed his voice for Kamal Haasan in some movies in Telugu.

Personal life Mano was born into a Muslim family from Andhra Pradesh. He is married to Jameela in 1985. His son Shakir is an actor and has starred in Naanga (2012).

Filmography

As actor Telugu 1979: Needa 1979: Rangoon Rowdy as Raju 1980: Ketugadu 1982: O Adadi O Magadu 1983: Kalyana Veena 1992: Hello Darling 1999: Vichithram as Narada 2003: Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu as himself 2015: Shivam as Tanu's father 2021: Crazy Uncles as Reddy

Tamil 1991: Sigaram as himself 1992: Singaravelan as Mano 2023: Single Shankarum Smartphone Simranum as Bhaskaran 2025: Kadhalikka Neramillai as Chandramohan 2025: Vattakhanal

Television year program Role Original language