Legends Of India

S. Janaki born April 23, 1938 is one of the greatest Indian singers of all times. She has sung in many Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. Janaki is also a lyricist and a music composer. A devotee of Lord Krishna and Shirdi Sai Baba, she spends a lot of time praying and has also released devotional music cassettes on Meera.

Early days and career

S. Janaki was born in Pallapatla, Repalle village, Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh
Janaki showed interest in music at a tender age and started singing at the age of three. She started learning music from a nadaswaram vidwan, Sree Paidiswamy. She moved to Chennai on the advice of her uncle Dr. Chandrashekar and joined as a singer in AVM Studio and started her career with Tamil films in 1957 in the film 'Vidhiyin Vilayattu' under the music director T. Chalapati Rao. Later, she got a chance in a Telugu film MLA.

She wrote many songs for Tamil and Telugu films. She has sung many songs, in almost all languages in South India as well as in Hindi, Sinhalese, Bengali, Oriya, English, Sanskrit, Konkani, Tulu, Saurashtra, Baduga, Japanese and German. Major singers along with her are P. Susheela, Vani Jayaram, K J Yesudas, P. Jayachandran, K. S. Chithra and S P Balasubramanyam.

Family

Her husband is late Sri.V.Rama. She lives with her son Murali Krishna, who acted in few films and has an audio business of his own; and his wife Uma Murali Krishna, a classical dancer (Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi); they have two daughters Amruthavarshini and Apsara.

Major awards

In 1956, second prize in competitions held by AIR (All India Radio) from the former Indian President Dr. Rajendra Prasad at the .

- In 1986, Kalai Mamani by Government of Tamil Nadu

- In 1987, Sur singar award

- In 2002 , Cinema 'Achiever Award' by the government of Kerala

- In 2005, Special Jury Swaralaya Yesudas Award for outstanding performance in music.

- National Film Awards four times for the best Playback singer by Government of India

- State Film awards fourteen times for the best Playback singer by Government of Kerala

- State Film awards seven times for the best Playback singer by Government of Tamil Nadu

- State Film awards ten times for the best Playback singer by Government of Andra Pradesh

National awards

- 1976, Film Name: 16 vayadhinile, Language: Tamil, First line of the song: "Senthoora Poove"

- 1980, Film Name: Oppol, Language: Malayalam , First line of the song: "Ettumanoorambalathil"

- 1984, Film Name: Sithara, Language: Telugu , First line of the song: "Vennello godari andham"

- 1992, Film Name: Thevar Magan, Language: Tamil, First line of song: "Inji Idippazagha"