Tanguturi Suryakumari was the first Miss Madras and Cultural ambassador selected by the noted social service organisation the Guild of Service. She was born on November 13 in 1925 in Rajahmundry.

During that time, the society was very conservative and could not even think of such an event to happen in the Madras city. Even then, the first Miss Madras was duly chosen with great celebration. Tanguturi Suryakumari had a nice voice and she was a singer, movie actress and epitome of loveliness, style, and culture. So nobody was disheartened to see her photo flashed in the press as the first Miss Madras.

Tanguturi Suryakumari was the niece of Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu, the then cabinet minister at Delhi and also chief minister of the two states, Madras and Andhra. She had the culture and dignity in her genes for her uncle was a passionate patriot, a successful lawyer who gave his all right down to the last penny for the cause of his Motherland and her freedom.

Even as a small child, Tanguturi Suryakumari started singing patriotic songs at political meetings all over the Telugu-speaking districts of the Madras Presidency, which were organised by the Indian National Congress party. She was also an exponent of arts, like music, dance and acting as it was also running in her blood. Her uncle Prakasam Panthulu was a well-known amateur stage actor in Rajahmundry, where he was first practicing as lawyer.

Tanguturi Suryakumari came under the influence of her uncle at an early age. He took her in many political gatherings to sing songs, which later was noticed by the gramophone record producers like Columbia and Odeon. Thus she became famous as a gramophone artiste, which later attracted several film producers. At that time, the South Indian film industry was located in Madras city. During that period, music used to be the main feature of the movie. Like other classical musicians of that time, Tanguturi Suryakumari also entered the Tamil cinema and was cast on her debut in the film `Vipranarayana` in 1937. Her next film Adrishtam was released in 1938 and became a hit. He was only 13 years old then. In this film, she played a rich heiress kidnapped over property disputes and driven to beg in the streets of Madras.

But despite of her talents shown in the early period, Suryakumari could not give much successful films in later period. Her other films include Katakam (1948) and Samsara Nowka (1949). Katakam was at first a Tamil play based on a lesser-known William Shakespeare play Cymbeline, and was written for the stage by one of the two founding fathers of the renaissance of Tamil theatre. Suryakumari acted in the Tamil version of the film, which did not do well and people did not find it satisfactory. Katakam was shot at Modern Theatres, Salem, and directed by the noted lawyer-turned film-maker Acharya.

Tanguturi Suryakumari later acted in few other Telugu films such as `Jayapradha Raitbu Bidda` (1939) `Chandrahasa` (1941) `Devatha` (1941) `Deenabhandhu` (1942) `Bhagyalakshmi` (1943) `Krishna Prema` (1943) `Geethanjali` (1949) `Adrishtadeepudu` (1950) `MaradhalnPelli` (1952) and `Ramadasu` (1964). Among these films, the `Devatha` and `Raithu Bidda` made film history and contributed to the Golden age of Telugu Cinema.

In the film, `Krishna Prema` by H. V. Babu Suryakumari played the role of sage Narada. And it was first time in the history of Telugu cinema; a woman played the male role of Narada. In this film, for the first time, Surya-kumari`s singing talents were fully utilised as Narada and her performance won her many laurels.

In the Telugu film `Bhakta Pothana`, Suryakumari played a guest role of goddess Saraswathi and presents a veena to the famed poet Pothana. In Nagaiah`s Ramadasu, she played a major supporting role. She had sung few songs in the film but only some of them were picturised in the film. She left India before the release of the film and it was a big hit.

In the film Apna Desh (1947) made by Indian movie maestro V Shantaram, Tanguturi Suryakumari lent her voice as playback artiste for the heroine of the movie and it became very popular. Suryakumari also acted in two Hindi movies named `Watan` (1954) and `UdanKatola` (1955). In the second one, she acted with Hindi movie icon Dilip Kumar. She was liked very much in the film and even got nominated for Best Supporting Actress award in the Filmfare Contest but she did not win. She spoke her Hindi dialogue herself.

She also acted in her later years in a bilingual Hindi-English film, `Bombay Might 417`, which is hardly remembered today.

Apart from her film career, Tanguturi Suryakumari was also well known for her private songs released as gramophone records and later as audiocassettes. The songs were very melodious and had impressive lyrics. Her sweet voice added more beauty to these songs.

She also sang some patriotic songs and in few of them she praised Mahatma Gandhi.

There were numerous such songs sang by Suryakumari of which few of them are `Maa Telujju Talliki Mallepoodhandalu O Mahatma Satapatra sun dart Maamidichettu a-llukunnadhi and others`. She also sang in a feature length documentary film about Mahatma Gandhi, which was made by a patriotic Tamil writer and journalist, A.K. Chettiar.

In later period of her life, Tanguturi Suryakumari went to the United States as a member of an Indian cultural delegation and had the great opportunity of meeting the `Merchant of Menace` Alfred Hitchcock himself. Hitchcock was impressed by her beauty, intellect and talent and took her into his unit and she worked in the production of many episodes of the famous television series `Alfred Hitchcock presents`.

During her few years` stay in the United States, she tried hard to spread Indian culture by organizing various stage shows and performances with great singers and dancers of India. She also composed a play based on a work of Rabindranath Tagore, which was staged and became hit there.

Thereafter, Tanguturi Suryakumari moved to the United Kingdom and got married to a painter. But she continued with her good work of spreading Indian culture there also. She passed away in April 2005 at the age of 80 years.

Tanguturi Suryakumari could not rise to the expected heights in cinema even though she had the talent, beauty and cultural bearings. But the reason behind this is not clear yet. Few of them say it is due to her aristocratic background, her reticent attitude and reluctance to give into the pressures brought upon female movie stars in the movie production system.