Legendary playback singer of South Indian languages, P Susheela, celebrated for her versatility, has entered the Guinness World Records for recording highest number of songs in several languages in a career spanning over half a century.
"Pulapaka Susheela Mohan (born 1935) has reportedly recorded upto 17,695 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs in over six Indian languages since the 1960s, as verified on 28 January 2016," said a citation of the Guinness World Records.
She has sung songs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and other Indian languages.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai, she said it was "a big honour having sung so many thousands of songs" and recalled how her debut began in Tamil film "Petra Thai" in 1952 (a duet 'Etharkku Azhaithai' with A M Raja) and how film producer AV Meyappa Chettiar supported her by identifying her talent during her early years.
"I will sing even now, if I get the opportunity," the 80-year-old playback singer said adding she had sung all kinds of songs and had learnt the nuances the hard way.
"I came to Chennai only after getting trained in Carnatic music, so it was not that difficult," she said and recalled how her "practice sessions made my voice more good."
The acclaimed singer has won many awards including National Awards and honours of several State governments in her long singing career which includes the Kalaimaamani Award of Tamil Nadu (1991) and Ragupathy Vangayya Award of Andhra Pradesh (2004).
Praised as melody queen, "Enthan vullam tulli vilyaduvathum yeno," "unnai kan thedutey" "brindavanamum nandakumaranum yavarukkum" were among her Tamil super hit songs.
In 2011, Asha Bhosle featured in the Guinness World Records for 11,000 solos, duets and chorus supported songs in over a dozen Indian languages.