Mumbai: Renowned playback singer Asha Bhosle, who passed away on April 12, has been posthumously conferred the Mohsin-e-Urdu Award by the Mumbai-based Urdu Markaz in recognition of her significant contribution to promoting the Urdu language and its cultural ethos through music.
The organisation highlighted her timeless Urdu renditions, including songs such as Dil Cheez Kya Hai, Justuju Jis Ki Thi, Nigahen Milane Ko Jee Chahta Hai, and Aage Bhi Jaane Na Tu, which popularised Urdu poetry among wider audiences.
According to advocate Zubair Azmi, the award had originally been announced in January 2026, and Bhosle had agreed to accept it. However, plans were deferred due to her scheduled travel to the United States and the subsequent postponement of the organisation’s festival.
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Azmi said he had a phone conversation with the singer. “I was spellbound when I heard her voice. I told her that, despite her not knowing Urdu, her songs took the language to Jhumri Telaiya — a town in Jharkhand, but also slang for a remote and inaccessible place — Ahmedabad and other places. She corrected me and said that she knew Urdu, having learnt the alphabets when her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, took lessons in the language and diction from Ustad Altaf Hussain Luft,” Azmi said. "Luft lived in Madanpura, a few buildings away from where I live."
“I also told her that she must have received bigger awards, but this could be her first from an Urdu literary organisation,” Azmi added.
Urdu Markaz held the fourth Bhendi Bazaar Urdu Festival in 2024, where it honoured actor and director Sachin Pilgaonkar, who writes in Urdu under the pen name ‘Shafaq’. Previous recipients of the award include legendary singers Lata Mangeshkar, Khayyam, Sudha Malhotra, and Suman Kalyanpur.
