His Master's Voice-9

Lourde-Mary Rajeswari Eswari (L. R. Eswari) (Tamil: எல். ஆர். ஈஸ்வரி Telugu: ఎల్ ఆర్ ఈశ్వరి) is a Veteran playback singer of the Tamil movie and Telugu movie industries. She also sang in other languages like Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu, and English. She has won Kalaimamani, the Tamil Nadu's state award for her contributions to the film industry.


She was born in Chennai into a Roman Catholic family to Anthony Devraj and Regina Mary Nirmala. Her ancestors were from Paramagudi near Madurai. Her full name is Lourde-Mary Rajeshwari. Since there was already another established singer with the name of M.S.Rajeshwari her name was abbreivated into L.R.Eshwari. She did not have any formal training in singing. Her mother was a chorus singer in films. Eshwari used to accompany her mother to the studios and soon began singing in the chorus herself, but quickly got a break to lend her voice as lead-singer. Her first break came from Sri K.V.Mahadevan in 1958 in the movie 'Periya Idaththu Sammandham', her first solo song recorded in this movie was 'ivarey thaan avarey'. But major recognition came from the song 'vaarai en thozhi vaaraayo' from the movie 'paasa malar' (1961) sung under the baton of Viswanathan-Ramamurthy, which composers explored and exploited her vocal abilities to the maximum extent possible over the next 20 years.


She sang under the direction of famous composers like M.S.Viswanathan, K. V. Mahadevan, Ilayaraja and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan. Her unique voice was considered to be suited for peppy numbers in the movies, be it a dance tune, folk song or a devotional track. Her song "Vaarayo Thozhi" from Paasa Malar was a popular choice for wedding music. She has also recorded many devotional albums in praise of the Goddess Amman which were hugely popular among the Tamil community and were played in many temples. Her "Chellatha" and "Karpoora Nayagi" numbers has won her a lot of fame among devotees. She has won the Kalaimamani Award and other states awards. Her Hindi song uduthi hi chidiya from the film pistonwali, music by satyam shows her ability. She sang romantic songs filmed on heroines as well as cabarets filmed on dance-artistes and also folk songs.

She made her everlasting impression in Telugu film industry with her husky and peppy numbers. Till date most of her songs are very popular among the Telugu audience. Her notable hits include "Masaka masaka Cheekatilo" from Devudu Chesina Manushulu, "Maayadari sinnodu" from Ammamaata, "Bhale Bhale magadivo" from Marocharitra, "Arey yemiti lokam" from Anthulenikatha, "Le le le naa raaja" from Premnagar, "Malle puvvulu pillagaalulu" and "Theesko coco cola esko rammusoda" etc. Perhaps she and P.Susheela were the most popular female-duet-duo ever, they complimented each other perfectly in terms of voice and style, and sang very many popular duets in their times – unadhu malar, chiththira poovizhi, ninaithaal sirippu, thoodhu sella etc.. They seemed to share a perfect chemistry and out-did each other line after line, apparently providing each other inspiration all along the song.She sang a popular duet "Gudilona naa swamy koluvai unnadu " with S. Janaki in a Telugu movie Idalokam for music of Chakravarthy,which remains a top hit till date. She rendered several duets with S Janaki in Kannada movies as well. She equally recorded many hunting numbers even in Kannada "Dooradoorininda Banda Sundarangajana" "Joke Naanu Balliya Minchu" "Don't Dail Wrong Number" "eri Mele Eri" "Modern Lady Madadhiya Nodi" "Gulabhi Kanne Kandaaga Omme" "Maathina Malla" and "Dhooradinda Bandhavare" Etc.



She sang innumerable duets with all the leading male singers also – T. M. Soundararajan, A. L. Raghavan, P. B. Sreenivas, S.P. Balasubramaniam, K. J. Yesudas, J. P. Chandrababu, C. S. Jayaraman, S. C. Krishnan, Thiruchi Loganathan, A. M. Rajah & Jayachandran. She also sang duets with female singers with most notably with P. Suseela, S. Janaki and others like K. Jamuna Rani, M. S. Rajeswari and Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi. After a long break, she made her re-entry through a rocky peppy Tamil Song "Kalasala Kalasala " from Movie Osthi 2011. Within few days of this song release, it has became a super hit and reached music box office top ratings,she sang the new Tamil song "Naa Poondamallida per puspavallida" from thadaiyara thakka 2012.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QVhpLz4Gzg

His Master's Voice-8

Vani Jayaram  born November 30, 1945 in Tamil Nadu is a prominent Indian female playback singer. She has thrice won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer. She has recorded more than 8,000 film songs in 14 different languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi,Odia, Gujarati and Hindi.


Vani Jayaram was born in Vellore in Tamil Nadu, in a Tamil Brahmin family of musicians. Her mother Padmavathi is the disciple of Ranga Ramunaja Iyengar, a great veena exponent. Kadaloor Sreenivasa Iyengar, who taught Vani’s sister music, was fascinated by her observation and grasping power. He taught her a few Dikshitar kritis when she was hardly five. The fifth daughter in a family of six daughters and three sons, Vani always secretly yearned for a career in film playback singing. Considered to be a child prodigy, Vani Jayaram claims to have recognized the different ragas of Indian classical music before the age of five. Her voice was first heard on All India Radio, Madras, at the age of eight.


She studied Carnatic music under the tutelage of Cuddalore Srinivasa Iyengar, T. R. Balasubramanian and R. S. Mani. Her Hindustani classical music guru was Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan. After her marriage to Jayaram she settled in Madras and Mumbai, where she realized her dream.


In 1971, she realized her childhood ambition of becoming a playback singer when Hindi film music director Vasant Desai chose her voice for the Hindi feature film Guddi. She recorded three songs for Guddi, and "Bol Re Papi Hara," a song based on the Hindustani raga "Miyan Malhar", instantly made her an household name in India. For that song she was awarded the Tansen Samman (for best classical-based song in a Hindi film), the Lions International Best Promising Singer award, the All India Cinegoers Association award, and the All India Film-goers Association award for the Best Playback Singer in 1971. She went on to sing a few songs each for music directors of Hindi cinema, including Chitragupt, Naushad (a classical song in Pakeezah and a duet with Asha Bhosle in Aaina), Madan Mohan (a duet with Kishore Kumar in the film Ek Mutthi Aasmaan), O.P. Nayyar (several songs from the film Khoon Ka Badla Khoon including duets with Mohammed Rafi and also with Uttara Kelkar and Pushpa Pagdhare), R. D. Burman (a duet with Mukesh in Chhalia), Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, and Jaidev (a duet with Manna Dey in Parinay and a solo in Solwa Saawan). Her songs in Meera (1979), composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar, won her the Filmfare Award.



Around 1974, she shifted her base to Chennai and soon became a sought-after singer in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam cinema. She worked with almost all the leading music directors of south namely M. S. Viswanathan, M. B. Sreenivasan, K. V. Mahadevan, M. K. Arjunan, Jerry Amaldev, Salil Chowdhary and Ilayaraaja. With the future Academy award winner, A. R. Rahman, she recorded a duet with S. P. Balasubramanyam in the song "Sugam sugam athu" for the film Vandicholai Chinnarasu in 1994.



Besides Hindi and Tamil, Vani Jayaram has recordings in other languages of India. These include some songs in Gujarati, Marathi, Marwari, Haryanvi, Bengali and Tulu, and a huge repertoire in Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Oriya. For her work in some of these languages, she has been awarded many prestigious awards, among them are Best Female Playback Singer for states of Gujarat (1975), Tamil Nadu (1980) and Orissa (1984). One of her most famous Marathi songs, "Runanubandhachya," is a duet with the classical Hindustani singer Kumar Gandharva. This song was composed by Vani's mentor Vasant Desai for a Marathi drama called Dev Deenaghari Dhaavlaa. The lyrics were written by Bal Kolhatkar.

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Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Muthuraju (Kannada:ಸಿಂಗಾನಲ್ಲೂರು ಪುಟ್ಟಸ್ವಾಮಯ್ಯ ಮುತ್ತುರಾಜು ) (24 April 1929 – 12 April 2006),] known mononymously by his screen name Rajkumar (Kannada:ರಾಜಕುಮಾರ್) was an actor and singer in the Kannada film industry. Dr.Raj is considered a cultural icon of Kannada, where he is also known as Rajanna, Natasarvabhouma (emperor of acting), Gaana Gandharva (singer in the court of Gods), and as Annavru (beloved elder brother).

A method actor, Rajkumar entered the film industry at the age of eight and got his first break as a lead in the 1954 film Bedara Kannappa and went on to work in over 220 films. At the age of 71, he was kidnapped in Gajanur (the place where he was brought up) by forest brigand Veerappan during a 108-day ordeal when he was released. He died of cardiac arrest at his residence in Bangalore on 12 April 2006. 

Rajkumar was also a singer, who sang many film as well as devotional songs [citation needed]. He won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 1992 for the song "Naadamaya" from the movie Jeevana Chaitra. It is a classical song in Thodi Raga.

He was trained in classical music while in Gubbi Veeranna's drama troupe which had a requirement for everyone to have at least a working knowledge of the classical music[citation needed]. He performed a song in the movie Mahishasura Mardini (this was picturized on Narasimharaju, a comedian). However, he did not become a full-fledged singer until his song "Yare Koogadali" from the movie Sampathige Sawal in 1974. Prior to this, Rajkumar's songs were mostly sung by P. B. Srinivas After which, he sang in most of his movies and in many private albums, which were mainly devotional albums. His song renditions ranged from pure classical to disco and fast numbers to pathos[citation needed]. His fans of the days of black-and-white movies in 1960s and 1970s, believe he was actually P. B. Srinivas, who did the playback singing for most of Rajkumar's movies, until Rajkumar himself started to sing. P. B. Srinivas continued singing for him in many of the movies in which Rajkumar starred in double/triple roles.

His songs about Kannadigas, Kannada language and culture, such as "Jenina Holeyo" from Chalisuva Modagalu, "Maanavanagi Huttidmele" from Jeevana chaitra and "Huttidare Kannada Naadalli Hutta Beku" from the movie Aakasmika. He sang a complete English song called "If You Come Today" ("Tick Tick Tick") in one of his Bond films - Operation Diamond Racket in 1978. This song became an internet meme in India following Rajkumar's demise in 2006.

In his final years, Rajkumar lent his voice to a few other actors and sang many background solos. One such song was for the 1993 movie Muddina Maava, wherein he provided playback to the singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, who acted in the movie. This was a rare occasion where an actor sang for a singer. Kalidasa's shlokas (songs) like "Maanikya Veena" and ghazal based songs like "Sadaa Kannale", "Kanneera Dhaare" and "Yaava Kaviyu". In addition to his film work, he lent his voice for many devotional songs on Hanumantha and Sri Raghavendra Swami.

In his film career, Rajkumar received nine Karnataka State Film Awards, ten South Filmfare Awards, two National Film Awards and a National Film Award for Best Playback Singer. He received in 2002 the NTR National Award. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Mysore, and is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan. and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

His Master's Voice-6

Sishtla Sreeramamurthy Janaki (born April 23, 1938), commonly known as S. Janaki, is an Indian playback singer. Renowned for her voice modulation abilities, she has sung in many Indian languages, most frequently in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Hindi. Throughout a career spanning more than five decades, she has recorded over 20.000 songs, won four National Film Awards and 31 different State Film Awards. Her association with singer S. P. Balasubramanyam and composer Ilaiyaraaja is among the most popular musical combinations in South India. She is fondly better known as, "The Nightingale of the South". She is a recipient of a Honorary doctorate and the Kalaimamani award from Tamil Nadu State Government.


In 2013, the Government of India announced the Padma Bhushan award for her, at the age of 74. The singer refused to accept the award, because it came too late and because South Indian artists weren't given their due recognition. She is honoured by those people, who like to hear her voice, instead.

S. Janaki was born in a Telugu speaking Brahmin family in Pallapatla, Repalle village, in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Her father Sishtla Sreeramamurthy was a teacher and an Ayurveda doctor. Her father worked in Sircilla in Karimnagar district. She was interested in music from an early age and started performing at the age of three. She learned music from Sree Paidiswamy, a Nadaswaram Vidwan for only one year. She also learned a few songs from Varanasi Balaramayya in Kovvur. She was inspired from film music and used to render the songs of Lata Mangeshkar, P. Leela, Jikki and P. Susheela on stage before entering films.

S Janaki started singing in movies at the age of 19. She later moved to Chennai on the advice of her uncle Chandrashekar and joined AVM Studios as a singer. She started her career in movies by singing songs composed by T. Chalapati Rao in the Tamil movie Vidhiyin Vilayattu in 1957. Subsequently, she performed in the Telugu movie MLA. "Singara velane deva" made her singing star over night. She sang several memorable duets with P B Srinivas and occasionally with T M Soundarrajan, A M Rajah & Ghantasala during the 1960s. Janaki became one of the most preferred female singers of South India from early 1970s due to her renditions of compositions of M.S.Vishwanthan from 1960's and 1970's - from the films - Alaymani,Alaigal, Avalku Endra Oru Manam, Namma Kuzhandhaigal,Thangaikkaga,Sudraum Sooravalium, Ganga Gowri and the duet song Konjam Neram from the MGR film Sirithu Vazha Vendum with T M Soundarrajan established Janaki as famous singer in early 1970's in Tamil films and thereafter every music director from Tamil film insustry started making her sing in their films. Then from 1976, Janaki went on to become one of the most favorite singers of Ilayaraja, and a phase ensued when she sang at least 2 to 3 songs per movie in all the four South Indian languages.


She sang in almost every major South Indian movie in from 1976-1999. From the 1980 till 1999, she was the top female singer in south Indian films and was the 2nd top female singer after P.Susheela from 1970-1980. She won several awards from government and private institutions during this period. She has a record of maximum singing compared to any other female singer in the Malayalam and Kannada film industry and she also holds the record of singing the most difficult song in South Films i.e. Shiva Shiva Ennada from the Kannada movie Hemavathi.


S Janaki started being noticed by all in Malayalam industry from early 1960s. M S Baburaj reserved his best compositions to her and made her a house hold name in Kerala. Their combination brought great melodies which stood test of time. She went on to record hits for M B Srinivasan, M S Viswanathan, Johnson, Ravindran, Dakshinamurthy, M K Arjunan, A T Ummer, Shyam and many others. Her duets with K J Yesudas, P Jayachandran topped the charts and remained as all time hits. She won awards almost every year for a decade in Malayalam. She remained as undisputed melody queen of Malayalam film industry from late 1960s to late 1980s. Her career in Kannada industry was equally, if not more successful. She reigned the Kannada music till late eighties. She continued to give some hits in 1990s as well. She was present in almost every album of G K Venkatesh and Rajan Nagendran. M Rangarao, Upendrakumar, Vijayabhaskar also gave her excellent melodies. Hamslekha used her singing talent in several albums, which were huge hits. Her duets with S P Balasubramanium, PBS and Rajkumar are immensely popular till date. Rajan Nagendra-SPB-Janaki is considered to be the most successful team to produce several unforgettable duets in Kannada.


While speaking about her career, her contribution to Telugu and Tamil cinema cannot be ignored. Though she was singing from late 1950s and delivering hits in these languages, popular songs in combination of M S Viswanathan brought her a lot of fame and recognition in late 60's and early 1970's. She became nationally famous from 1976 due to her teaming up with Ilayraja. Her vocal skills were tested to the core and she won every time in songs by Ilayaraja. Her smile/laugh, sensuous notes, alaaps/humming were used to a major extent. Other music directors like Chakravarthy, Sathyam, Ramesh Naidu, M S Viswanathan, K V Mahadevan, Shankar Ganesh in 1980s to give some of their career best melodies to Janaki. She rendered several semi-classical numbers also with lots of ease during this period. She delivered several hits with SP Balasubramanyam, Malaysia Vasudevan, K J Yesudas, Jayachandran, Mano, Arunmozhi in Tamil. She also sang super hit duets with actors like Kamal hasan, Rajni Kanth etc. Her duets were very popular and some of them were major reasons for the success of several movies. She continued to deliver hits with the younger generation of music directors like Madhavapeddi Suresh, Vandemataram Srinivas, Raj-Koti, Deva, S A Rajkumar, Yuvan Shankar Raja etc. in the 1990s and after 2000. She also sang few songs in music of A R Rahman and they were very popular.


She was invited to Hindi film industry by Bappi Lahiri for the 1985 movie Saheb, where she delivered super hit "Yaar Bina Chain Kahan Re". She sang around 100 songs in the music of Jaidev, Lakshmikant Pyarelal, R D Burman, Ravindra Jain, O P Nayyar, Bappi Lahiri, Anu Malik and others. She recorded duets with Mohd Rafi(in Telugu movies), Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Bhupinder, Manhar Udas, Amit Kumar, Suresh Wadkar, Mohd Aziz, Udit Narayan, Shankar Mahadevan and others. But she personally preferred singing south Indian songs as she was getting melodious songs with better quality at that time than in Hindi.In Hindi her duets with Kishore Kumar were the most pupular - like Mamla Gadbad Hai from Dharmadhikari, Pyar Ki Pehli Raat from Sighasan, Galon Par Jab Aise from Masterji, Main Tera Tota from Paap Ki Duniya. She also penned many songs for Tamil and Telugu albums as she was extremely good in both the languages. She has also sung in Sinhalese, Bengali, Oriya, English, Sanskrit, Konkani, Tulu, Saurashtra, Baduga, Japanese and German.


As a devotee of Lord Krishna and Shirdi Sai Baba, she has also recorded Hindu devotional music of Meera. She released albums with songs of Meera, Tulsidas, Surdas & Kabir Das. She released 3 classical albums with songs of Thyagaraja Swamy, Muthuswamy Deekshithar and Swathi Thirunal. She has sung Devaranamas of Purandara Dasa and worked for restoring Ramadasa Keertanalu. She worked with Balakrishna Prasad and sang some of the finest anamacharya keerthanas for him. She rendered several devotional albums apart from these classic albums. She has sung for television and radio programs as well and won awards for best playback from Andhra Pradesh state government for TV Serials. Her contemporaries include Malaysia Vasudevan, S.P.Balasubramanyam, P B Srinivas, Rajkumar, Ghantasala, T. M. Soundararajan, P. Susheela, Vani Jayaram, K J Yesudas, L R Eeswari, P. Jayachandran, P. Leela, K. S. Chithra, Uma Ramanan, Swarnalatha, Sujatha, Hariharan, Unni Krishnan, Srinivas, Unni Menon and Jency.

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Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (born 10 January 1940) is an Indian classical musician and playback singer. Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. He has recorded more than 50,000 songs in many languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English during a career spanning five decades. He has performed in most Indian languages except Assamese, Konkani and Kashmiri. He also composed a number of Malayalam film songs in the 1970s and 1980s. Yesudas is fondly called Gana Gandharvan (The Celestial Singer).


Yesudas has won the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer seven times (the most by any Indian singer) and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer 43 times, which consists of awards by the state governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1975 and Padma Bhushan in 2002 by the Government of India for his contributions to the arts. In 2011 Yesudas was honoured with the CNN-IBN outstanding achievement award for being India's celestial singer having recorded over 50,000 songs in a five-decade career. In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai!


K. J. Yesudas was born at Fort Kochi, in the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin, into a Roman Catholic Latin Rite family to Augustine Joseph and Alicekutty. His father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor, was his first guru. Later he joined the R.L.V. Music Academy at Thrippunithura and underwent training. Later he studied at Sree Swati Thirunal music college, Thiruvananthapuram under the late Semmangudy Sreenivasa Iyer. But he could not complete his studies due to financial constraints. For a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Hari Hara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.In 2011 he completed his 50 Years as a Play Back Singer.


The first song sung by Yesudas is Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dwesham (music: M B Sreenivasan) on 14 Nov 1961, which he usually sings on all the special occasions in front of the audience. Yesudas began his career in playback singing in the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal and Tamil movies in the early 1960s. By the 1970s Yesudas entered Bollywood.The first Hindi song he sung was for the movie Jai Jawan Jai Kissan (1971), but the first released movie was Chhoti Si Baat. He has sung Hindi songs for many leading actors in Hindi cinema including Amitabh Bachchan, Amol Palekar and Jeetendra. He has sung many evergreen Hindi film songs for music directors including Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri, Khayyam, Rajkamal and Salil Chowdhury.


For the past 30 years Yesudas has been visiting Kollur Mookambika temple, Udupi, Karnataka on his birthday to sing keerthans of Saraswati devi, the Goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. The music festival started on his 60th birthday. The nine-day music festival begins every January at Kollur Mookambika Temple. On Sunday, 10 January 2010, he celebrated his 70th birthday (Sapthathi) at Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple with 'Sangeetharchana' (classical devotional songs), along with 70 singers before goddess Mookambika. The Sangeetharchana included "Pancharatna Gayana" of Thyagaraja's poems. He also took part in the Vidyarambha function. All India Radio broadcasted the special Sangeetharchana all over Kerala. Harivarasanam, a devotional song musical version composed by G. Devarajan, recited before closing the temple at Sabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.



Yesudas has the rare feat of performing the classical concert for 36 times in the 36-year old prestigious Soorya Music festival organised by Soorya Krishnamoorthy. This is one among his concerts which is highly followed by serious musical lovers and often rated as the most popular among his concerts in India. After winning the Kerala State Award for Best Playback singer on numerous occasions, he asked that he be ruled out of contention so as to give his peers and newcomers a chance of winning the award. Despite his request, he was still given this award several times in the following years.

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Pulapaka Susheela (born November 13, 1935) is an Indian playback singer. A recipient of 5 National Awards and numerous state awards, Susheela is widely acclaimed as a singer and is well known for her mellifluous vocal performances for thousands of film songs across South Indian languages. She is also considered to be one of the rich voiced singers whose pronunciation of the syllables to be more clear and precise in any of the languages she sung. In a career spanning more than four decades, she has recorded numerous songs in various Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Sanskrit, Tulu, Badaga. She has also sung for Sinhalese films.


She was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, the daughter of Pulapaka Mukunda Rao, a leading advocate in Vizianagaram, Vizianagaram District, Andhra Pradesh Statea. The noted banker Pulapaka Seethapathi Rao, managing director of State Bank of Hyderabad, is her father's younger brother. She is married to Mohan Rao; they have a son named Jayakrishna and two granddaughters named Jayashree and Subashree. Her daughter-in-law, Sandhya Jayakrishna, is a singer who debuted with A. R. Rahman in Iruvar.

Born into a music loving family, Susheela had nurtured a formal classical music training at a very young age. She used to participate in all the musical competitions both at her school and the Vizianagaram town events. She developed the crucial nuances in singing songs with apt expressions and modulations through her extensive training during these days. She also sang few songs for the All India Radio (AIR) for their private program telecasts.

In 1950, 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 5 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.[1] 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.

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. The year 1955 saw Susheela raising 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 wrote some of the most evergreen songs of 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 more than hundreds of songs with Viswanathan - Ramamurthy.


The 1970s also saw Susheela in her prime form winning almost all the awards both Nationally and in all the four states of Southern India. She also recorded even Hindi songs during this period with music directors like KV Mahdevan, Laximkant Pyarelal, L.Vaidyanathan and Laxmi Kiran,S.L. Manohar, Ajit merchant, G.Devarajan and S.N.Tripathi. It was in this era that she sang few notable songs for another prolific Indian music director Illayaraja. Though Janaki took over the leading position in the from 1980 with her strong association with M.S.V and Ilayaraja, Susheela continued to be at the top till 1985 and after 1985 was still opted by several music directors for her legendary vocals.After 1986, she became selective about film songs and continued to have hit film songs till 2005.


With S. Janaki and Vani Jayaram taking over the Southern film songs center stage from 1985 and K. S. Chitra beginning her career, Susheela slowly shifted her focus from films to Devotionals and Light Music. But she continued to get to sing melodious film songs from 1984-1999 though she had after 1985 cut down on offers for singing in films. She even won awards for songs in Telugu films - Vishwanatha Nayakudu in 1987, Godavari Pongindi in 1989 and Tamil film Varam in 1989. She sang duets with Kishore Kumar in 1986 for the film Singhasan - Chalta hai do dilon ka kaise sansaar and Tere Liye Maine Janam which became popular. She also concentrated more on stage shows across the Globe where many associations world wide invited her to perform for their organized shows. She recorded more than 1000 devotional songs for various audio companies. In 1988, acclaimed music composer Naushad insisted her to sing "Janaki Jaane" for his Malayalam film Dhwani. She also recorded few of her career best songs for Illayaraja, A. R. Rahman and others in the 1990s. "Kannukku Mai Azhagu" from the film Pudhiya Mugam (1993) composed by Rahman was praised all over for its lyrical content and rendition.She had hit songs in Tamil till 2005 and sang many devotional and folk songs from 1986-2005 and did many live shows from 1990-2005.

His Master's Voice-3

Prathivadi Bhayankara Sreenivas (22 September 1930 – 14 April 2013), was a veteran playback singer from India. He was born in Gollaprolu near Kakinada in East Godavri District of Andhra Pradesh. He had sung around 3000 songs in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Tulu films. He was known for his playback singing in the Kannada, Telugu and Tamil film industries. He had sung in all the main languages of the country but it is in Kannada that he has the highest number of songs in his career. He died on 14 April 2013 at the age of 82 in Chennai.


Sreenivas made his début in 1952 in Gemini's Hindi film Mr Sampat, where his song "Aji hum Bharat ki naari", a duet with Geeta Dutt, became popular. He entered the Kannada film industry in 1953 through the movie Jathaka Phala, which was later made in Tamil and Telugu also. In Kannada, he achieved great success through Bhakta Kanakadasa starring Super Star Dr.Rajkumar. The song Baagilanu teredu of the film was a very big hit. Later he went on to sing greatest numbers for Super Star Dr.Vishnuvardhan, Srinath, Kalyan Kumar, Udaya Kumar and others. In 1955 he also sang in the Malayalam film Harishcandra. His first solo hit came in the movie Prema Pasam in which he also sang a duet with P. Susheela. His first song for Rajkumar was in 1956 film Ohileshwara. Later he sang for the Super Star for a long time and the association was highly appreciated by critics, fans and the industry. In the Tamil industry, his maximum number of songs are for Gemini Ganesan. The most memorable hit of this duo was 'Nilave ennidam nerungathe'. He had sung for other actors as well but incidentally, he had sung very few songs for M. G. Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan.He sang the popular duet in Hindi Chanda Se Hoga Wo Pyaara (with Lata Mangeshkar) in the film Main Bhi Ladki Hoon in 1964. In Tamil his voice was more used for actors Gemini Ganeshan, Muthuraman, Ravichandran, Jaishankar.


In Pava Mannippu, Sreenivas sang "Kalangalil Aval Vasantham" written by Kannadasan and set to music by the music duo M. S. Viswanathan - T. K. Ramamoorthy. The film Adutha Veettuppen of Anjali Pictures carried some of his songs. Sreenivas has also sung with P.Susheela, S. Janaki, P. Bhanumathi, K. Jamuna Rani, L. R. Easwari and Lata Mangeshkar for the movie Main Bhi Ladki Hoon and some North Indian Singers. His devotional songs include "Sharadha Bhujanga Stothram", "Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham", "Mukunda Mala", "Shri Mallikarjuna Stotram" and Purandaradasa compositions. His "home away from home" was the Woodlands Drive-In restaurant in Chennai where one could frequently spot him sit quietly writing poetry.[4] He had headed many music related organizations such as being the president of Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram.


Though Sreenivas had hit numbers in all the languages that he sang, it was in the Kannada Film Industry that he sang the highest number of songs in his career and it was in the Kannada Industry that he delivered the highest number of hit songs. PB Sreenivas ruled the Kannada Industry for over three decades and was the voice for many Super Stars though his combination with Dr.Rajkumar created history. He was instrumental in shaping the Kannada identity like Dr.Rajkumar and Dr.Vishnuvardhan. He has sung thousands of songs and most of his songs were big hits. He has the credit of lending his voice for the most popular ever green songs of the Kannada Cinema like Nee bandu Ninthaaga, Ravivarmana, Akashave Beelali mele, Baare Baare Chandada Cheluvina, Olave Jeevana Sakshathkara, Panchama Veda, Kannadada Kuladevi, Binkada Singari, Olavina Priyalathe, Ivalu Yaaru Balleyenu, Baa Thaayi Bharathiye, Naavaduva Nudiye, Gaganavu Ello, Apaara keerthi, Malenaada Henna, Indu Enage, Neera Mele Aleya Ungura, Uthara Druvadhim, Kannada Naadina Veera Ramaniya, Endendu Ninnanu Marethu, Endu Ninna Noduve, Thookadisi Thookadisi Beeladiru Thamma and many more.


He has been honored with The highest award of Karnataka State, the prestigious Kannada Rajyothsava Award awarded by the Chief Minister of the state. The Tamil Nadu state's honorary Kalaimamani Award. Dr Rajkumar Souhardha award given by the super star's family.