P. Susheela

Born 1935-11-13 · Vizianagaram, Madras Presidency, British India

Pulapaka Susheela is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema for over six decades. She has been recognized by both the Guinness Book of World Records and the Asia Book of Records for singing most number of songs in 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 film songs[8] across South Indian languages. The song "Paal Polave" 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,National Award for female playback singing was introduced for the first time in 1969 and Smt P.Susheela was the first recipient also making it the first Tamil film to win a National Award under that category. She is fondly called "Gana Kokila" and "Gana Saraswathi". She is also considered as one of the rich voiced singers whose pronunciation of the syllables to be more clear and precise in any of the languages she sang. In a career spanning more than six decades, she has recorded nearly 40,000 songs in various Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Sanskrit, Tulu and Badaga. She has also sung for Sinhalese films. Her mother tongue is Telugu. She can also speak Tamil, fluent Hindi, and a little Kannada.