Muniyamma pursued her career as a singer by performing at cultural temple functions and also performed around 2,000 stage performances of folk songs in her 60s, which also include shows in
London,
Singapore and
Malaysia on behalf of the
Lakshman Sruthi. In an interview with
The Hindu in 2004, she once pointed out the fact that her overseas international folk related programmes stand testimony to the fact that human race has a passion towards folk art and culture. She was approached by several musical directors during her peak, notably by
A. R. Rahman to croon a song for the 1995 film
Muthu, however she turned down the offer for unknown reasons. She was also approached by music director
Vidyasagar to croon a folk song for the film
Dhool (2003) and she accepted the offer. She made her film debut as playback singer with the film
Dhool and sang her first film song "Singam Pola Nadanthu Vaaraan" which was well acclaimed by the audience as the song was shot during a fighting sequence. She was eventually cast in a supporting role in the same film by director which also eventually marked her film acting debut at the age of 66. She then appeared in over 50 films, usually playing grandmother roles. The success of the film and the song prompted further acting and singing offers for Muniyamma from the film industry. After she was hospitalized in 2015, the Tamil film industry helped her, including actors
Sivakarthikeyan,
Sarathkumar and
Vishal. Then, Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa helped her under the MGR welfare scheme by arranging 6 lakhs fixed deposit in her name, and actor
Dhanush took care of her treatment expenses. In November 2019, she was rumoured to have died after being critically ill. In February 2020, she came to promote and watch the film
Maayanadhi in theatre after a request from actor
Abi Saravanan despite being critically ill for years. She was awarded the
Kalaimamani in 2019 by the government of
Tamil Nadu. ==Filmography==