T. G. Kamala Devi (born Thota Govindamma; 29 December 1930 – 16 August 2012), also known as Kamala Chandra Babu, was an Indian dubbing artist,

playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...

and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

who primarily contributed to

Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of Film, motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film N ...

as well as a few

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

films. She was also a former professional level billiards player who won the Indian Women Billiards title twice. She died of a brief illness at Chennai on 16 August 2012.

Biography

She was born in Karvetinagaram, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. Her original birth name was Thota Govindamma and she later changed her name to T. G. Kamala Devi after entering the film industry. The initials "T. G." in her name represent her birth name. She married Avula Chandra Babu in 1946 and had a son named Avula Jaychander with him.

Film career

Acting

She was in a drama company and acted in some male and female roles in her early days. She received many medals for her performances. She then shifted to the cinema field and acted in about 30 films, most of them being minor supporting roles.

Singer

She has sung several songs In Telugu and Tamil films like the Telugu-Tamil Film

Pathala Bhairavi ''Pathala Bhairavi'' () is a 1951 Indian fantasy film directed by K. V. Reddy who co-wrote the film with Pingali and Kamalakara Kameswara Rao. Shot simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil languages, the film was produced by Nagi Reddi and Chakra ...

wher in Telugu she sang 'Ithihasam Vinaara' or the tamil version ''Ithikasam Kaetarra''

Dubbing artist

She also was a popular dubbing artist and has lent her voice to actors such as Padmini,

B. Saroja Devi Bangalore Saroja Devi (born 7 January 1938) is an Indian actress who has acted in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. She acted in around 200 films over seven decades. She is known by the epithets "''Abhinaya Saraswathi''" ( Saraswathi of ...

, Lalitha and many more.

Cue sports

Kamala was one of the earliest women cue sport players in India. When the then reigning snooker world champion

Horace Lindrum Horace Lindrum (born Horace Norman William Morrell, 15 January 1912 – 20 June 1974) was an Australian professional player of snooker and English billiards. Lindrum won the 1952 World Snooker Championship defeating New Zealander Clark McConach ...

visited Chennai at the invitation of the Andhra Maha Sabha in 1954, circumstances led Kamala to pick up the cue and provide Mrs. Lindrum a woman opponent to play against. Soon enough, she made her way to state and national-level tournaments. Since then, she played in various open tournaments in Billiards & Snooker as the only woman player at that time, competing with men at Chennai, Vijayawada and Bangalore. She won the Indian National Billiards Women titles in 1991 and 1995. She had the unique opportunity of playing exhibition matches at Bangalore and Mysore with the then World Billiards Champion Bob Marshall. She won both her billiards national titles at the age of 62 and 66 representing the Tamil Nadu state.

Awards

* Nataka Kala Prapoorna was awarded to her by the Andhra Pradesh Nataka Academy.

Titles

* National Billiards Champion: 1991, 1995

Filmography

References

External links

* * - T. G. Kamala Devi sings and dances in

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devi, T. G. Kamala 1930 births 2012 deaths Indian women playback singers Indian film actresses Indian voice actresses Telugu playback singers Singers from Andhra Pradesh People from Chittoor district 20th-century Indian singers 20th-century Indian actresses Actresses in Telugu cinema 20th-century Indian women singers Actresses from Andhra Pradesh Film musicians from Andhra Pradesh Women musicians from Andhra Pradesh