Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, on Tuesday, September 24, announced the prestigious Kalaignar Memorial Kalaithurai Vithakar Award for 2023. Playback singer P Susheela and Tamil poet Mu Metha are the winners of the award constituted in memory of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Kalaignar Karunanidhi and carry a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh and a memento.

The state government said that the awards will be given away on September 30 to the winners. A committee under the chairmanship of noted film director SP Muthuraman with actor Nazar and director Karur Palaniappan as members shortlisted the winners.

Tamil Nadu government announced this award in the year 2022 and the first winner of the award was the scriptwriter of the Tamil movie industry, Aroor Das or 'Tiruvarur' Das. However, as 2024 marks the birth centenary of Karunanidhi, Chief Minister MK Stalin announced one more award to honour a female artiste and the committee recommended noted playback singer P Susheela.

Poet Muhammed Mehta alias Mu Mehta is a Tamil professor and a noted Tamil poet who has earlier won the Tamil Sahitya Academy award for his work ‘Agayathukku Adutha Veedu’. The noted poet has written lyrics for more than 70 Tamil movies. He has also authored several poems, short stories, novels and essays.

Born in Periyakulam in Tamil Nadu on September 5, 1945, Mu Mehta richly deserves the award in memory of Late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi who himself was one of the most noted writers and poets of the Tamil movie industry.

The other recipient of the award P Susheela was conferred the Padma Bhushan in the year 2009. She has sung around 25,000 songs in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and also in the Hindi film industry. Susheela also holds the Guinness Book of world records for singing maximum songs in Indian languages.