Lata Mangeshkar passes away: Lesser known facts about the legendary singer

Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar passed away on Sunday at the age of 92 years.

One of the best and most respected playback singers in the country, Lata Mangeshkar always managed to enchant all age groups with her soulful vocal prowess.

She won the hearts of the audience for around seven decades. The legendary singer recorded songs in over a thousand Hindi films and sung in over 36 foreign and regional Indian languages.

She was the elder sister of singers Asha Bhosle, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar.

She was also a recipient of three National Awards, the prestigious Bharat Ratna and Dadasaheb Phalke Award, among several others.

The Queen of Melody also became the first Indian to perform in the Royal Albert Hall in 1974.

Here are some lesser known facts of the legendary singer:

She was born as Hema and later renamed as Lata based on a character Latika from one of her father’s plays- 'BhaawBandhan'. Her surname, Mangeshkar, is after a village- Mangeshi in Goa.

First time time she performed publicly in 1938 at the Nutan Theater in Sholapur where she sang 'Raag Khambawati' and two Marathi Songs.

At the age of 5, Lata started acting in her father’s musical plays- 'Sangeet Natak' in Marathi. She also played a minor role in the 1st Hindi film by Master Vinayak- 'Bari Ma' in 1945.

She attended school only for a single day. On the very first day at the school she brought her younger sister Asha and started teaching music to the students and when teachers scolded her for the same, she left school forever.

She sang her debut song in Marathi language- 'Natali Chaitraachi Navalaai' in the Marathi film- 'Pahili Mangalaagaur'.

Although Lata spent most of her adult life in Mumbai, she was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and spent 16 years of her life in the city.

Lata Mangeshkar revealed in an interview that her true godfather was Ghulam Haidar who trusted her talent.

Her first National Award came for the songs in the movie 'Parichay'.

Once she was given a slow poison by an unidentified person for which she was bed-ridden for almost 3 months.

When she sang the song- 'Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo' on 27 January 1963, it brought tears to the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.

Published on: Sunday, February 06, 2022, 10:06 AM IST