Sunitha Upadrashta is well known popular Playback Singer, Anchor and Dubbing Artist in Telugu Film Industry. Singer Sunitha is a name, a celebrity that enthralls the hearts of millions of youth with her melodious voice. She has been acclaimed as a top-singer winning kudos from stalwarts like Sri S.P BALASUBRAHMANYAM, M. Balamuralikrishna, Smt. P.Suseela, Smt.S.Janaki, and others. Her continuous, untiring efforts made her to reach heights and she is now regarded as “the much sought-after singer” in the film industry. She is personified as “Three-in-one” with a blend of gifted talents, as a singer, as a dubbing artiste, and as an anchor to various channels that conduct musical programmes. She has worked as a dubbing artiste in almost 500 films in 8 years.
Personal Life
Sunita was born on May 10, 1978 in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh into a Telugu Brahmin family. Her parents Sri Upadrasta Narasimha Rao and Smt. Sumathi are well known to music lovers at Vijayawada and Guntur. She got married at the age of 19. Her husband Kiran works for the media. The couple have two children - one boy (Aakash) and one girl (Shreya).
Carreer
Sunitha started her Cultural pursuit at a very early age of 3 years and got training in Music from Pemaraju Surya Rao in Carnatic Vocal and Light music from Kalaga Krishna Mohan for 8 years. She won several ‘prizes’ and ‘praises’ in various competitions ranking first and won many Gold Medals. Sunitha, at her very young age of 10 years, participated in Tyagaraja Aradhana Utsavalu along with her guru Sri Pemmaraju Surya Rao garu.
She entered as a playback singer in Films at her early age of 15 years. Sri Sasi Preetham, a versatile music director has first given her a chance to sing in the film ‘Gulabi’ and her first film song is ‘Ee vela lo Neevu’ written by famous writer, Sirivennela Sitaramasastri This is a humming song to youngsters even today. Smt Sunitha, from the day of her debut in the film industry, never looked back, and proved herself as a versatile singer ascending film by film and year by year.
So far, she worked with great music directors like Ilayaraja, Vidyasagar, M.M. Keeravani, S.V. Krishna Reddy, Koti, Raj, Vandematharam Srinivas, Mani Sharma, Ramana Gogula, S.A. Raj Kumar, Sandeep Choutha, Micky-J-Mayor, Devi Sri Prasad, R.P. Patnaik, Chakri, Nihal, Kalyani Malik, Anup, Sunil Kashyap, Saluri Vasu Rao, Madhavapeddi Suresh, Saketha Sairam, Bunty etc… There are so many super hit songs to her credit. She rendered nearly 3000 songs, in films alone.
Sunitha has traveled abroad extensively as a Singer and claimed International recognition. She was invited to Telugu Association of North America –TANA in 1999, 2001.
as a Dubbing Artist
She has given voice for various artists like Kamalini MukherjeeAnushka, Asin, Bhoomika Chawla, Charmi, Laila, Meera Jasmine, Soundarya, Sonali Bendre, Shriya, Genelia, Sneha, Sada, Katrina Kaif, Trisha, etc...
Choodalani Vundi (for Soundarya)
Manasantha Nuvve (for Tanu Roy)
Jayam (for Sadha)
Indra (for Sonali Bendre)
Okariki Okaru (for Aarti Chhabria)
Nenunnanu (for Shriya)
Anand (for Kamalinee Mukherjee)
Mr & Mrs Sailaja Krishnamurthy (for Laila)
Sri Ramadasu (for Sneha)
Godavari (for Kamalinee Mukherjee)
Happy Days (for Tamannaah)
Simha (for Nayantara)
Sri Rama Rajyam (for Nayantara)
as an Anchor
She anchored many music based programmes and live shows on Gemini TV, MAA TV, ETV and Doordarshan.
Awards
National Awards
As a student, she received First National Award for Folk songs at Delhi, Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Delhi was pleased to sanction scholarship at her very tender age of 8 years.
- National Award from All India Radio under light music category in 1994 at the age of 15 years.
Nandi Awards (won 8 times)
- Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 1999 as the Best female playback singer for TV film Antha Rangaalu
- Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2002 as the Best Female dubbing artist for the movie Jayam (Voice of Sada)
- Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2003 as the Best Female playback singer for the song 'Naa paata' from the Movie Athade Oka Sainyam
- Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2004 as the Best Female dubbing artist for the movie Anand (Voice of Kamalinee Mukherjee)
- Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2005 as the Best Female dubbing artist for the movie Pothe Poni (Voice for Sindhu Tolani)
- Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2006 as the Best Female playback singer for the song 'Andam ga lena' from the movie Godavari
- Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2010 as the Best female playback singer for TV film Anthahpuram
- Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2011 as the Best Female dubbing artist for the movie Sriramarajyam (Voice of Nayanatara)
- Vamsi Berkeley Award as Best female playback singer in year 1999.
- Vaartha Vasavi Award as a best playback singer (2000)
- Bharata Muni Award (2000)
- Cine Goers Award for Best Dubbing (2002)
- Dasari Award as a best playback singer (2003)
- Best Playback Singer award from European Telugu Association, London (2003)
- Kalavedika Art Award as an All rounder for excellent performance as a Singer, Anchor and Movie dubbing artist (2003)
- Sangam P Susheela Youth Award honored with Gold Medal (2004)
- Vamsi Berkeley Award as Best female playback singer in year 2005
- Sangam P Susheelawa Youth Award for year 2004 honored with Gold Medal.
- Best female play back singer of tollywood 2010 for the song “Hrudaya Vedana” from the film “Aa Intlo’ music scored by Sri Koti garu. This award is given by “Radio Mirchi” in a grand function held at Chennai on Saturday 17 July 2010.
- TV Award 2009 for Best Female Playback Singer presented by Delhi Telugu Academy in Hyderabad on August 8, 2010.
- TSR - TV9 Award for Best playback singer - female (2010) was presented on April 10, 2011 in Hyderabad.
- Lata Mangeshkar Best Singer Award for 2011 was presented by the State Government at 2nd Lata Mangeshkar Music Awards - 2011 function on September 28, 2011 at Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad.
Performances
- She gave her first performance at the age of 3.
- She gave her first programme in Light Music in AIR in the year 1995 at the age of 16.
- She has given about 500 programmes so far in AIR, Doordarshan, ETV, Gemini TV, and MAA TV.
- She has also given programmes abroad, at Kuwait, Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, London, USA, Philippines etc. where she received kudos from the Telugu speaking people for her talents both as a singer and anchor.
- She also proved her mettle as a dubbing artiste, lending her voice to the notable, popular heroines of the Telugu Screen and so far 700 films are counted for her dubbing score.
courtesy: Wikipedia