Song Bird Asha Bhosle
No introduction is required for Asha Bhosle. Her singing career has spanned over six decades. She is known as Bollywood’s songbird singing over 12000 songs. She was born into a Marathi family full of singers. Having the legend Lata Mangeshkar as her sister often led her to fall under her sister’s shadows.
Her career started in 1943 when she was only ten. She debuted in Hindi films with the song “Saawan aaya” for Hansraj Behl’s Chunariya in 1948. She took the assignments that the other major singers, included Lata Mangeshkar, did not take. She achieved success in B. R. Chopra’s Naya Daur. She became immensely popular and became the voice of Bollywood’s original item girl Helen. She has sung in thousands of movies in fourteen languages. She’s sold many albums and has collaborated with many international artists. Bhosle has won numerous awards including seven Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards, a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, two National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer, the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India and nominated for the Grammy award.
Bhosle had eloped at sixteen with sister Lata’s personal secretary; 31-year old Ganpatrao Bhosle. Her entire family was against this. A few years later, the marriage ended. She later married RD Burman with whom she had a lasting relationship. They had come together for many of Bollywood’s greatest hits. Her main hobby being cooking, she admits that she would have been a cook if not a singer. She owns restaurants in Kuwait and Dubai whose chefs are personally trained by her for six month.
Even now, she offers stiff competition to those who less than half her age!
Her versatility allows her to sing ghazals, classical, bhajans and pop. She still sings like she used to in the prime of her age.