Jikki
| P.G. Krishnaveni | |
|---|---|
Jikki in late 1940s
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | P.G. Krishnaveni |
| Also known as | Jikki |
| Born |
3 November 1935 Chennai |
| Origin | Chandragiri, Madras Presidency, British India now in Andhra Pradesh |
| Died | 16 August 2004 (aged 68) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Genres | Film music (playback singing), Indian classical music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocalist |
| Years active | 1948–2004 |
Pillavalu Gajapathi Krishnaveni, more famously known as Jikki, was a popular playback singer from Andhra Pradesh. She sang around 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Sinhala languages. Her mother tongue was Telugu. She spoke Tamil fluently.
Jikki was born in Chennai on 3 November 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 good-looking girl 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.
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