Tanguturi Suryakumari

Tanguturi Suryakumari Biography

Tanguturi Suryakumari was a noted singing actress of yesterdays who has appeared in south Indian movies as well as Hindi. The official song of the state Andhra Pradesh - Maa Telugu Thalliki was sung by her. She is the niece of Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu, noted politician and freedom fighter who is the first chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. For her role as Raj Rani in 1955 Bollywood movie, Uran Khatola she received a Filmfare nomination for best supporting actress. The award was won by Nirupa Roy for Munimji. Surya appeared in about 25 Indian films in the 1940s and 1950s and has done playback singing as well. She has also travelled worldwide several times, including Hollywood as a member of a delegation from the Indian film industry. She has won the Outer Critics Circle Award for best actress for Tagore’s play ‘The King of the Dark Chamber’ in 1961.

She earned the recognition of a singing actress since childhood. By the age of 12, she became a singing star. Vipranarayana in 1937 was her breakthrough movie as a singing artist. It was followed by Adrushtam in 1938, which was also a commercial hit. Though she has appeared in lesser number of movies, she became a part of Telugu golden hits, ‘Devatha’ and ‘Raithu Bidda’. She was mostly associated with Telugu movies. She played the role of Saint Narada in the Telugu mythological movie, ‘Krishna Prema’. Uran Khatola and Watan are her most memorable Hindi movies.

‘Raithu Bidda’ (1939), ‘Bhagyalakshmi’ (1943), ‘Krishna Prema’ (1943), ‘Maradalu Pelli’ (1952) and 'First Miss Madras' (1952) are a few memorable movies. She has also released many private music albums which includes some patriotic songs as well. She has been an announcer of Radio Ceylon Telugu. She passed away in 2005.

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Updated: May 12, 2014