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 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 with a little Hindi 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 is married to Dr. Mohan Rao ; they have a son named Jayakrishna and two granddaughters named Jayashree and Shubashree . Her daughter-in-law , Sandhya Jayakrishna , is a singer who debuted with A. R. Rahman in '' Iruvar
16th National Film Awards
16th National Film Awards
P. Susheela