P. Susheela
Indian singer
Pulapaka Susheela (13 November 1933) is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema for over six decades and is referred to as the "Evergreen Nightingale of Indian cinema". She is one of the 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 the first woman playback singer to receive the national award. She also has received 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 40,000 (counted as per records) film and devotional songs across Indian languages in films, albums, TV and radio which includes solos, duets, chorus and title tracks, including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Sanskrit, Odia, Tulu, Urdu, Punjabi, Badaga, Bengali, Konkani, as well as in foreign languages such as English. She has been active in the music industry since 1951.
The song "Naalai Intha Velai" from Tamil film Uyarndha Manidhan brought her the first 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 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.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “P. Susheela” is indian singer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Susheela, Indian and singer, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2050197. The first chronological checks are 1933, 1951 and 1969.
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This entry incorporates text from “P. Susheela” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.