P. Susheela

In a career spanning more than six decades, she has recorded nearly 17695 songs in various Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali,Odia, Sanskrit, Tulu and Badaga.

She has also sung for Sinhalese films.

Her mother tongue is Telugu.

She can also speak Tamil fluently, with a little Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada.

Susheela was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, as the daughter of Pulapaka Mukunda Rao, a leading advocate in Vizianagaram, Vizianagaram District, Andhra Pradesh State.

Pulapaka Suseela (born 13 November 1935) is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema primarily from Andhra Pradesh for over six decades and is referred to as Evergreen Nightingale of Indian cinema.

She is one of the greatest and best-known playback singers in India.

She has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as well as by the Asia Book of Records for performing a record number of songs in different Indian languages.

She is also the recipient of five National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer and numerous state awards.

Susheela is widely acclaimed as a singer who defined feminism in South Indian cinema and is well known for her mellifluous vocal performances for over 50,000 (counted as per records) film and devotional songs across South Indian languages.

P. Susheela went on to become the most successful playback singer of South India from 1950 to 1990.

Born into a music-loving family, Susheela had been nurtured with formal classical music training at a very young age.

She used to participate in all the musical competitions at her school and Vizianagaram town events.

She developed the crucial nuances in singing songs with apt expressions and modulations through her extensive training during those days.

She also sang a few songs for the All India Radio (AIR) for their private program telecasts.

It was not easy for a newcomer to foray into the musical scene in the 1950s with the domination of eminent female vocalists like P. Leela, M. L. Vasanthakumari, Jikki among others ruling the playback industry.

Yet, Susheela made her own mark with her distinct and clear vocals.

In 1951, music director Pendyala Nageswara Rao was on the look out for some fresh voices to sing for his new film compositions.

He approached the AIR to help him shortlist some of the finest singers who have performed for the Radio.

AIR sent forward five singers of whom Susheela was selected after some thorough audition tests.

She was immediately signed on for the Tamil film Petra Thai (1952) for a duet song "Edhuku Azhaithhai" with A. M. Raja.

This was subsequently made in Telugu as Kanna Talli for which she recorded the same duet with Ghantasala.

This resulted in her long term employment with AVM Studios singing for their productions alone with a fixed monthly salary.

The studio owner A. V. Meiyappan hired a Tamil trainer for Susheela to hone her Tamil pronunciation skills.

Thus Susheela began her illustrious career gaining abundant knowledge about music and language.

She debuted into Kannada language with the film Maadidunno Maaraya in 1954.

The year 1955 saw Susheela rising to popularity with her back to back hit songs both in Tamil and Telugu film industries.

Missamma released in 1955 had hugely popular songs backed with strong carnatic classical essence.

Susheela created a huge impact among the listeners with her effortless renditions of the toughest notations.

The same year released Tamil film Kanavane Kan Kanda Deivam made her a household name in Tamil Nadu.

Thus began a huge legacy of Susheela, who sang in almost all the films produced since 1955 through 1960s and 1970s till 1985.

The legendary Tamil musicians Viswanathan – Ramamurthy duo composed some of the most evergreen songs of Tamil cinema history in the voice of Susheela.

Her duets with the acclaimed singers Ghantasala in Telugu, T. M. Soundararajan in Tamil and P. B. Srinivas in Kannada marked a new era of duet songs in the South Indian music industry.

She, along with T. M. Soundararajan went on to record hundreds of songs with Viswanathan – Ramamurthy.

The song "Naalai Intha Velai" from Tamil film Uyarndha Manidhan brought her the first ever award at the 16th National Film Awards, by winning her the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer in 1969.

Susheela became the first ever female singer in the country to win the national award.

She is also considered one of the rich voiced singers whose pronunciation of the syllables are to be very clear and precise in any of the languages she sang.

She was married to Dr. Mohan Rao, who died in 1990; they have a son named Jayakrishna.

Her niece, Sandhya Jayakrishna, who later became her daughter in law, is a singer who debuted with A. R. Rahman in Iruvar and she has two grand daughters.One of them is Shuba Sri and she is the lead guitarist with music director Thaman S.

After completion of schooling, Susheela joined in Maharaja's Music College under the tutelage of Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu who was the Principal, Vizianagaram, and completed Diploma in Music from Andhra University in First Class at a very early age.