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Jikki
Pillavalu Gajapathy Krishnaveni (3 November 1935 – 16 August 2004), more famously known as Jikki, was an Indian playback singer. She sang around 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhalese, and Hindi languages.
Jikki was born in Chennai on November 3rd, 1935. Her parents, Gajapathi Naidu and Rajakanthamma, a Telugu family, had moved from Chandragiri, near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh to Chennai for their livelihood.
Her uncle, Devaraju Naidu, worked as a music composer with the celebrated Kannada theatre legend and movie pioneer Gubbi Veeranna and this introduced the young Jikki to the music and film world.
Krishnaveni began her career as a child artist in 1943 and played a minor role in a Telugu movie named Panthulamma, directed by Gudavalli Ramabrahmam. In 1946, she appeared in the movie Mangalasutram, a remake of a Hollywood movie Excuse Me. She was already being noted for her musical prowess and her lilting mellifluous voice although she did not undergo any orthodox classical training in music at that stage.
A chance came her way to sing for the successful Tamil film Gnanasoundari in 1948 for which music was composed by the then doyen of film music, S. V. Venkatraman. The song was the super hit "Arul Thaarum Deva Maathaavey Aadhiyey Inba Jothi" for Kumari Rajamani who acted as the young girl growing into the young woman, M. V. Rajamma the heroine taking over the song with P. A. Periyanayaki singing as the scene advanced in time. This was the turning point in her life and changed the child actress Krishnaveni into a regular playback singer, Jikki, with offers of work for not only Tamil and Telugu films, but also for Kannada and Malayalam films.
She met her husband-to-be, A. M. Rajah, in 1950, when he was introduced in the Tamil film Samsaram as a new playback singer by Gemini's S. S. Vasan. He then introduced her to the Hindi film world by getting her to sing for his production Mr.Sampath in 1952. P. B. Srinivas also sang his first song in this film in a chorus. She also sang Sinhalese songs as well at that stage since the Sinhalese films were produced in Madras during those years.
Together with P. Leela, she reigned supreme in the South Indian film world in the early part of the 1950s, till P. Susheela took over the center stage from the late 1950s. Though they were in competition, they were fond of each other and behaved like two sisters and sang many songs together.
She was married to the successful playback singer and music director A. M. Rajah. Their duets have been hits. Jikki sang many songs under her husband's direction that are still played by radio stations. A. M. Raja and Jikki have sung for live programmes in other countries such as U. S. A., Malaysia and Singapore.
Jikki
Pillavalu Gajapathy Krishnaveni (3 November 1935 – 16 August 2004), more famously known as Jikki, was an Indian playback singer. She sang around 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhalese, and Hindi languages.
Jikki was born in Chennai on November 3rd, 1935. Her parents, Gajapathi Naidu and Rajakanthamma, a Telugu family, had moved from Chandragiri, near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh to Chennai for their livelihood.
Her uncle, Devaraju Naidu, worked as a music composer with the celebrated Kannada theatre legend and movie pioneer Gubbi Veeranna and this introduced the young Jikki to the music and film world.
Krishnaveni began her career as a child artist in 1943 and played a minor role in a Telugu movie named Panthulamma, directed by Gudavalli Ramabrahmam. In 1946, she appeared in the movie Mangalasutram, a remake of a Hollywood movie Excuse Me. She was already being noted for her musical prowess and her lilting mellifluous voice although she did not undergo any orthodox classical training in music at that stage.
A chance came her way to sing for the successful Tamil film Gnanasoundari in 1948 for which music was composed by the then doyen of film music, S. V. Venkatraman. The song was the super hit "Arul Thaarum Deva Maathaavey Aadhiyey Inba Jothi" for Kumari Rajamani who acted as the young girl growing into the young woman, M. V. Rajamma the heroine taking over the song with P. A. Periyanayaki singing as the scene advanced in time. This was the turning point in her life and changed the child actress Krishnaveni into a regular playback singer, Jikki, with offers of work for not only Tamil and Telugu films, but also for Kannada and Malayalam films.
She met her husband-to-be, A. M. Rajah, in 1950, when he was introduced in the Tamil film Samsaram as a new playback singer by Gemini's S. S. Vasan. He then introduced her to the Hindi film world by getting her to sing for his production Mr.Sampath in 1952. P. B. Srinivas also sang his first song in this film in a chorus. She also sang Sinhalese songs as well at that stage since the Sinhalese films were produced in Madras during those years.
Together with P. Leela, she reigned supreme in the South Indian film world in the early part of the 1950s, till P. Susheela took over the center stage from the late 1950s. Though they were in competition, they were fond of each other and behaved like two sisters and sang many songs together.
She was married to the successful playback singer and music director A. M. Rajah. Their duets have been hits. Jikki sang many songs under her husband's direction that are still played by radio stations. A. M. Raja and Jikki have sung for live programmes in other countries such as U. S. A., Malaysia and Singapore.
