P. Susheela Female Playback Singer of India

P. Susheela or Pulapaka Susheela(born November 13, 1935) is a legendary Indian playback singer.She is considered to be South Indian version of Lata Mangeshkar. She is famous for her voice. She has recorded several songs in many Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Sanskrit, Tulu, Paduga and also a Sri Lankan language, Sinhalese . Her career spanned for more than four decades.

Early life

Susheela was born in Vijayanagaram, Madras Presidency, in present day Andhra Pradesh, India.

Career

In 1950, music director Pendyala Nageswara Rao was looking for new talent and scouted for new singers at All India Radio. Of the five people referred, Susheela was selected and sang her first song, a duet with A. M. Raja - 'Edhukku azhaithaai' for the movie.

Susheela made her entry when competition was intense. But her entry in 1952 outshone others and soon pushed all of them to the background. Right from 1955 she was very popular and almost all the movies had a song sung by her. It was the legendary Saluri Rajeswara Rao, who spruced up her voice culture and gave her challenging assignments especially involving veena in his music direction.

She rendered several memorable songs under the legend K. V. Mahadevan and under the expert baton of M. S. Viswanathan in all south Indian languages.

She has won the First national award presented to the Female Singer category in 1969 by Indian Govt.

Awards and recognition

• Mrs. P. Susheela was awarded the 'Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in January 2008.
• She received the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer five times
• In 2005, she achieved Special Jury Swaralaya Yesudas Award for outstanding performance in music.
• In 2001, Andhra Pradesh Government honored her with the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for lifetime achievement to Telugu Cinema.

Year	Movie	Language	Song
1969	Uyarntha manithan	Tamil	paal polave vaan meedhile ( naalai intha vElai pArthu)
1972	Savaale samaali	Tamil	Chittuk kuruvikkenna kattuppaadu
1978	Siri Siri Muvva	Telugu	Jhummandi naadham sayyandi paadam
1982	Meghasandesam	Telugu	Priye chaaruseele
1983	M.L.A. Edukondalu	Telugu	Yentha peethovaade gopaludu venugopa

State Awards

Year	State	Movie	Song
1969	Tamil Nadu State award	Uyarntha manithan/Lakshmi kalyanam	Paal polave vaan / brindavanathukku
1971	Kerala State award	Oru penninte katha	Poonthen aruvi ponmudi puzhayude
1975	Kerala State award	Chuvanna sandyakal	Poovukalku punya kaalam
1977	Andhra Pradesh State award	Daana Veera Soora Karna	Kalagantino swamy
1978	Andhra Pradesh State award	Naa Laaga Endaro	Kalyanini kanulunna manusuku kanipinchu
1981	Tamil Nadu State award	Anbulla Athaan	Aazhakkadal neenthi vanthen
1982	Andhra Pradesh State award	Megha Sandesam	Aakulo aakunai
1984	Andhra Pradesh State award	Sangeetha Samrat	Entha sogasugaade
1987	Andhra Pradesh State award	Viswanatha Nayakudu	Kavi Jana Samaaja Bhoja
1989	Andhra Pradesh State award	Godavari Pongindi	Pongindi pongindi
1989	Tamil Nadu State award	Varam	Magane magane kannurangu