Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar has never been married and keeps her personal life a closely guarded secret. As the eldest sister among her siblings, she has always maintained close relations with her younger sisters and brother. Her love for cooking, reading, photography and cricket is well known.

She was born as “Hema” in a Marathi speaking family in Madhya Pradesh as the eldest daughter of Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar and his second wife Shevanti. She was later renamed “Lata” after a character in her father’s play.

She has several younger siblings, of whom sister Asha and Usha are also reputed singers in their own right. Her father began teaching her music when she was a little girl. She was an eager learner and loved to sing.

She was just five when she began appearing in her father’s plays as an actress. She did not go to school for much long, though the reasons cited behind this vary.

Tragedy struck the family in 1942 when Deenanath Mangeshkar succumbed to heart disease leaving behind a young family. His eldest daughter, Lata, who was just 13 years old at that time had to start working to fend for the family.

The first song that Lata sang was ‘Naachu Yaa Gade’ for the Marathi movie, ‘Kiti Hasaal’ in 1942. However the song was dropped from the final movie cut.

Her father’s friend Master Vinayak gave the little girl a small role in the Marathi movie, ‘Pahili Mangalaa-gaur’ in 1942 in which she also sang a song.

Even though she started her career as a Marathi singer and actress little did people know that this young girl would one day grow up to dominate the music of Hindi filmdom. Incidentally, her first Hindi song was also from a Marathi movie in 1943. The song was "Mata Ek Sapoot Ki Duniya Badal De Tu" from the movie ‘Gajaabhaau’.

She moved to Mumbai in 1945 along with Master Vinayak’s company. During this time she also started taking classes in Hindustani Classical music from Ustad Amanat Ali Khan.

She held the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world which over the period of 1948 to 1974 came up to be approximately 25,000 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages.