Renowned playback singer S Janaki celebrates her 75th birthday today. Born on April 23, 1938 in Repalle village in Guntur district, Janaki started her singing career in film industry at 19. In a career spanning five decades, she has crooned more than 20,000 songs that include Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, and few other Indian languages. She delivered maximum hit numbers in the combination of SP Balasubrahmaniam and Ilayaraja. The singer is famous for her voice modulation and is fondly called as ‘The Nightingale of the south’. Janaki was honoured with four National film awards and 31 different State film awards. Although the Government of India announced the Padma Bhushan award for her this year, she refused to accept it because the award came too late for her and hence she felt that the South Indian artists are not receiving their due recognition.
