Pulapaka Susheela, popularly known as P. Susheela, is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema primarily from Andhra Pradesh for over six decades. She is one of the greatest and best-known playback singers in India.
Pulapaka Susheela 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 numerous state awards. Susheela is widely acclaimed as a singer who defined feminism in South Indian cinema and is well known for her mellifluous[5][6] vocal performances[7] 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 in 1969. Susheela was the first recipient of this prestigious honour, which also made Uyarndha Manidhan, the first film to win a National Award under that category. 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. In a career spanning more than six decades, she has recorded nearly 50,000 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 fluently, with a little Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada.
Susheela was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, as the daughter of Pulapaka Mukunda Rao, a leading advocate in Vizianagaram, Vizianagaram District, Andhra Pradesh State. She was married to Dr. Mohan Rao, who died in 2012; they have a son named Jayakrishna. Her niece, Sandhya Jayakrishna, is a singer who debuted with A. R. Rahman in Iruvar and she has two grand daughters.

After completion of schooling, Susheela joined in Maharaja’s Music College under the tutelage of Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu who was the Principal, Vizianagaram, and completed Diploma in Music from Andhra University in First Class at a very early age.

P. Susheela went on to become the most successful playback singers of south India from 1950 to 1990. In 1950, music director Pendyala Nageswara Rao selected Susheela to sing her first song, a duet with A. M. Raja – ‘Edhukku azhaithaai’ for the movie.

Susheela made her entry when the 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 Saluru 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 was the recipient of the national award for best singer in the years 1969, 1971, 1977, 1982 and 1983. At the state level, both Tamil Nadu and Kerala have honoured her with several awards. The Tamil Nadu Government recognised her genius in the years 1968, 1980, 1981, 1989 and 1991 with various titles, prizes and awards.

The songs that she sung in ‘Kanavane kan kanda dheiyvam’ (1955) brought her the popularity that she so well deserved. Especially songs like ‘Endhan ullam thulli vilyaaduvadhum,’ ‘unnaik kan thedudhe’ brought out her talent for rendition. Then came ‘Missiyamma’ in the same year. Susheela became very popular with ‘Brindha vanamum Nandha kumaranum’ and ‘ariyaa paruvamada’ set to Karaharapriya. Her name soon spread and was respected among the elite and the masses.

Right from 1955 there was not a single movie – for a very very long time – that did not have a song in her voice. Her career was at its best in the 60s and the early 70s.

After her splendid performance in Kalyana Parisu, melody itself assumed a new dimension and soon a trend was set in motion that placed equal emphasis on songs on par with story, scenes and sequence. Susheela’s contribution to this trend was considerable. She has given hundreds of golden melodies under the direction of stalwarts Viswanathan – Ramamurthy. She continues to rule supreme in the hearts of her fans through the thousands of numbers she has rendered in a very long and enviable career.