Popularly called as the Lata Mangeshkar of the South her first film was the Telugu film Kannatalli and her first playback in Tamil was for the film Petra Thai .Her melodious voice caught the attention of other music directors and she became a much sought after playback singer. There was no Tamil movie without songs by her. Susheela has sung for all the South Indian language films. Her songs in movies like Pava Manippu, Palum Pazhamum , Parthal Pasitheerum, Uthama Puthiran , etc. still remain favourites of film music lovers. She sang effortlessly and with comprehension and while singing brought out the depth of the lyrics. Susheela has sung a lot of songs under the music direction of composers Viswanathan-Ramamurthi, and has rendered the maximum of songs with T. M. Soundararajan.She is the recipient of the National Award for female playback singer in 1969, 1971, 1977, 1983, 1984 and has also bagged the Tamil Nadu State Award, the Kerala State Government Award and from her home State Andhra Pradesh she has won the Best Playback Artiste Award given by the Madras Film Fans Associations and during the Indo-Pakistan war she entertained the jawans at the war front. The Government of Tamil Nadu has honoured her with the title of ``Kalaimamani'' and again in the year 1991 she won the Tamil Nadu State Government Award as best playback artiste for 1990-91. In August 1992 Susheela was conferred the honorary Doctorate at Washington, U.S. by the North American Alumni Association. She has sung so many songs that she herself is not sure of the number of songs rendered by her( Susheela in an Interview in the English News Paper "The Hindu"). She is singinging in films for nearly four decades.