inspired to become a singer after listening to latas songs on the radio her uncle who was a theatreperson had janaki singing latas songs during the interval of plays a filmmaker spotted her during one such session and got her to sing her maiden song for tamil film vidhiyin vilayattu in 1957however janakis refusal to accept padma bhushan in 2014 saying she would not accept anything short of bharat ratna grabbed the attention of media while janakis objection was to singers from south india being deprived of their due recognition her statement was analysed in the backdrop of lata being bestowed with the highest civilian award lata however shared a cordial relationship with southern singers including p susheela sp balasubrahmanyam and kj yesudas