Chennai

The citation presented to her said she has sung 17,695 solo, duets and chorus-backed songs in over six languages. She was the first woman to receive a national award for best playback singer in 1968 and now is the recipient of five such awards. The singer has sung about 1,336 duets with renowned singer S P Balasubramaniam, which is a record of maximum duets by the same duo. 

Baskar Sivaji, a die-hard fan of actor Sivaji Ganesan, grew up listening to Susheela’s songs. He said, “It is an international honour for her. She is no doubt the melody queen of Indian music industry.” 

“She is a versatile singer and listening to her voice we can imagine for which actress she is singing,” said Shankar, who runs a prominent music troupe in Chennai said “Susheela is one voice that provided choice, ecstasy and relief during stress for several millions of people.” 

“Our stage shows are incomplete without her songs. It is difficult to pick and choose her melodious numbers as she had sung 1000s of songs,” he added. Pulapaka Susheela started her career in 1960 in All India Radio.     

Her playback singing career started with Tamil movie Petra Thai. She went on to croon in several classics such as Missamma, Savaale Samaali, Siri Siri Muvva and Meghasandesham. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2008. She has received several awards from different state governments. 

Popularly known as “Gana Kokila” and “Gana Saraswathi,” Susheela is a singer whose pronunciation of syllables is said to be clear and precise in all languages she sang. In a career spanning more than six decades, she has recorded numerous songs in various Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Sanskrit, Tulu and Badaga. She has also sung for Sinhalese films. 

Susheela was born in Andhra Pradesh to Pulapaka Mukunda Rao, a leading advocate in Vizianagaram. Noted banker P Seethapathi Rao, former MD of State Bank of Hyderabad, was her father’s younger brother. 

After her schooling, Susheela joined Maharaja’s Music College under the tutelage of Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu who was the Principal and completed Diploma in Music from Andhra University at a very young age.  She is married to Mohan Rao and has a son Jayakrishna and two granddaughters Jayashree and Subashree. Her daughter-in-law, Sandhya Jayakrishna, is a singer who debuted with AR Rahman in Iruvar.

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