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Sunitha Upadrashta (Telugu: సునీత ఉపద్రష్ట) is playback singer, anchor and dubbing artist in the Telugu Film industry, also known as Tollywood.

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. She works as a singer, as a dubbing artiste, and as an Anchor to various channels who conduct musical programmes. She has worked as a dubbing artiste in almost 500 films in 8 years.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Sunita was born 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 married at the age of 19. Her husband Kiran works for the media.The couple have two children-one boy (Akash) and one girl (Shreya).

Career[link]

She has started her Cultural pursuit at a very early age of 3 years and got training in Music from Pemaraju Surya Rao in Karnatic Vocal and Light music from Kalaga Krishna Mohan for 8 years. She won several ‘prizes’ and ‘praises’ in various competitions ranking first and 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 music director has first gave her a chance to sing in the film ‘Gulabi’ and her first film song is ‘Ee vela lo Neevu’ written by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri.

So far, she worked with music directors including Ilayaraja, Vidya sagar, M.M. Keeravani, S.V. Krishna Reddy, Koti, Raj, Vandematharam Srinivas, Mani Sharma, Ramana Gogula, S.A. Raj kumar, Sandeep choutha, Micky-J-Mayor, Devisri 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. She has also sung songs in Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam languages.^[2]

Sunitha has traveled abroad extensively as a Singer and claimed International recognition.^{[citation needed]} She was invited to Telugu Association of North America –TANA in 1999, 2001. For TANA 1999 she was a part of the troop with Nagarjuna, RamyaKrishna and Tabu.

Dubbing Artist[link]

She has given voice for various artists like Anushka, Asin, Bhoomika, Charmi, Laila, Meera Jasmine, Soundarya, Sonali Bendre, Shriya, Genelia, Sneha, Sada, Katrina Kaif, Trisha, Kamilini Mukherji,etc.

Selected Films as dubbing artist[link]

• 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)
• Simha (for Nayantara)
• Sri Rama Rajyam (for Nayantara)

Anchor[link]

She anchored many music based programmes and live shows on Gemini TV, MAA TV, ETV and Doordarshan.

Awards[link]

National Awards[link]

As a student, she received First National Award for Folk songs at Delhi, Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Delhi and she received a scholarship at the age of 8 years.

• National Award from All India Radio under light music category in 1994 at the age of 15 years.

[edit] Nandi Awards

• 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
• Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2003 as the Best Female playback singer for 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 the Kamalinee Mukherjee)
• Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2005 as the Best Female dubbing artist for the movie Pothe Poni^[3]
• Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2006 as the Best Female playback singer for the movie Godavari
• Nandi Award from State Government of Andhra Pradesh for year 2010 as the Best female playback singer for TV film Anthahpuram

[edit] Filmfare Awards

• Won : Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2010) for the movie Cheluveye Ninne Nodalu to the song "O Priyathama"
• Nominated : Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Telugu (2009) for the movie Pravarakhyudu to the song "Neela Neela Mabbulu"
• Nominated : Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Telugu (2010) for the movie Vedam to the song "Egiripothe"
• Nominated : Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Kannada (2010) for the movie Modalasala to the song "Prathama"

Other Awards[link]

• 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)
• Sangam P Susheelawa Youth Award for year 2004 honored with Gold Medal.
• Vamsi Berkeley Award as Best female playback singer in year 2005
• 'Best female play back singer of tollywood 2010' award for the song “Hrudaya Vedana” from the film “Aa Intlo” music scored by sri Koti. This award was 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.^[4]
• 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.^[5]

Performances[link]

• She gave her first performance at age 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.
• She has dubbed 700 films.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sunitha Upadrashta at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.singersunitha.com/
• http://www.idlebrain.com/celeb/interview/sunitha.html
• http://telugugo.com/singer-sunitha