D O B September 8,1933
Languages Hindi
Place of Birth Mumbai
Known For Singer
Married Yes

Biography Asha Bhosle born September is an Indian singer She is best known as a Bollywood playback singer although she has a much wider repertoire Her career started in and has spanned over six decades She has done playback singing for over Bollywood movies and sold many records She is the sister of playback singer Lata Mangeshkar Bhosle is considered one of the most versatile South Asian singers her range of songs includes film music pop ghazals bhajans traditional Indian Classical music folk songs qawwalis Rabindra Sangeets and Nazrul Geetis She has sung in over languages including Assamese Hindi Urdu Telugu Marathi Bengali Gujarati Punjabi Tamil English Russian Czech Nepali Malay and Malayalam Bhosle is believed to have sung over songs Though her sister Lata Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records during - for having sung the most songs in the world reputed sources have introduced concerns to its veracity claiming that the Guinness counts were exaggerated and Bhosle had recorded more songs than Mangeshkar Bhosle herself pointed out that she had made the most recordings by any singer - Asha Bhosle was born in the small hamlet of Goar in Sangli Maharashtra into the musical Marathi More family of Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar Her father was a theater actor and classical singer br br When she was nine years old her father died The family moved from Pune to Kolhapur and then to Mumbai She and her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar began singing and acting in films to support their family She sang her first film song Chala Chala Nav Bala for the Marathi movie Majha Bal The music for the film was composed by Datta Dawjekar She made her Hindi film debut when she sang the song Saawan aaya for Hansraj Behl's Chunariya Her first solo Hindi film song was for the movie Raat Ki Raani At the age of she eloped with -year old Ganpatrao Bhosle marrying him against her family's wishes Ganpatrao was sister Lata's personal secretary The marriage failed miserably Her husband and in-laws mistreated her After a few years of marriage Bhosle was turned out around by a suspicious Ganpatrao and she went to her maternal home with two children and pregnant with her third child Anand She continued to sing in films to earn money At that time prominent playback singers like Geeta Dutt Shamshad Begum and Lata Mangeshkar her sister monopolized the singing for the heroine roles and the big films whilst Asha Bhosle used to get the assignments they did not take singing for the bad girls and vamps or songs in the second-grade movies In the s she sang more songs than any other playback singer in Bollywood yet most of these were in low budget B or C-grade films Her earliest songs were composed by A R Qureshi Sajjad Hussain and Ghulam Mohammed most of which failed to do well Singing in Dilip Kumar-starrer Sangdil composed by Sajjad Hussain she got reasonable recognition Consequently film director Bimal Roy gave her a chance to sing in Parineeta Raj Kapoor signed her to sing the song Nanhe Munne Bachche with Mohammed Rafi in Boot Polish which gained popularity O P Nayyar gave Asha Bhosle a big break in C I D She first achieved success in B R Chopra's Naya Daur composed by him His collaboration with Bhosle produced many hits Later she established herself and received patronage of composers such as Sachin Dev Burman and Ravi Bhosle and Nayyar had a professional and personal parting of ways in the s In Asha's performance in the duets from music director R D Burman's first successful movie Teesri Manzil won popular acclaim Their collaboration produced numerous hits in the s and resulted in a marriage In s and s she became the voice of Bollywood's most famous dancer Helen It is said that Helen would attend her recording sessions so that she could understand the song better and plan dance steps accordingly Some of the most popular Asha Bhosle-Helen numbers are Piya Tu Ab To Aaja Caravan O Haseena Zulfon Wali Teesri Manzil and Yeh Mera Dil Don In Umrao Jaan and Ijaazat she sang traditional ghazals and proved her versatility winning the coveted National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer Her film activities continued into the s Her performance in the hit Rangeela was particularly notable As late as -year-old Asha Bhosle's numbers for the Tamil film Chandramukhi and the pop song Lucky Lips for Salman Khan-starrer Lucky were chartbusters Some of the other popular Tamil songs sung by Bhosle are Oh Butterfly September Maadham and Vennila Vennila In October The Very Best of Asha Bhosle The Queen of Bollywood a compilation album of songs recorded by Bhosle for albums and Bollywood films that were released during - was released Asha Bhosle's first big success was B R Chopra's Naya Daur The New Age br Her duets with Rafi like Maang ke saath tumhara Saathi haath badhana and Uden jab jab zulfein teri penned by Sahir Ludhianvi and composed by O P Nayyar gave her recognition Asha and O P Nayyar had worked earlier as well But it was the first time that she had got to sing all the songs for the lead actress B R Chopra the producer of Naya Daur recognized her talent and got her to sing in many of his later films including Waqt and Gumraah Humraaz Aadmi Aur Insaan Dhund etc Asha Bhosle became a pop crooner with Rahul Dev Burman's Teesri Manzil When she first listened to the tune of the song Aaja Aaja she felt that she would not be able to sing the Western dance number R D Burman offered to change the music She was offended a bit and took it as a challenge to sing the song After rehearsing for days when she finally sang the song an impressed R D Burman handed her a -rupee note Aaja Aaja and other songs of the film O Haseena Zulfonwali and O Mere Sona Re all three duets with Rafi another popular Bollywood singer became rage of the day Shammi Kapoor the actor of the movie once said If I did not have Mohammad Rafi to sing for me I would have got Asha Bhosle to do the job By s Asha Bhosle had been stereotyped as a cabaret singer and a pop crooner br br In Rekha-starrer Umrao Jaan she sang ghazals like Dil cheez kya hai In aankhon ki masti ke Ye kya jagah hai doston and Justju jiski thi The songs proved her capable of doing fairly serious songs The music director Khayyam had lowered her pitch by half a note Asha herself was surprised that she could sing so differently The ghazals won her the first National Award of her career and proved her versatility In a -year old Asha Bhosle did playback for young actress Urmila Matondkar in the movie Rangeela She pleasantly surprised her fans with superhit songs like Tanha Tanha and Rangeela Re The songs were composed by iconoclastic music director A R Rahman who went on to record many more songs with her Particularly notable was Asha Bhosle's first song with A R Rahman Tanha Tanha an oomph-oozing number Asha's house is situated in Prabhukunj Apt on Peddar Road area of South Mumbai She has three children and five grandchildren The eldest of her three children is Hemant Bhosle named after Hemant Kumar spent most of his early years as a pilot and quit to have a brief career as a music director Asha's daughter Varsha who is younger than Hemant worked as a columnist for The Sunday Observer and Rediff The youngest child is Anand Bhosle who has studied business and film direction He manages Asha's career Her grandson Chaitanya Chintu Bhosle Hemant's son also ventured in the world of music as a member of a successful boy band Band of Boys Her granddaughter Anneka Bhosle Hemant's daughter is on her way of becoming a successful Photographer Her sisters Lata and Usha Mangeshkar are playback singers The other two siblings sister Meena Mangeshkar and brother Hridayanath Mangeshkar are music directors Asha is an excellent cook and cooking is her favorite hobby She often gets flooded with requests by Bollywood celebrities for kadai ghosht and biryani and has rarely turned down a request In fact her paya curry Goan fish curry and dal are very popular with the Kapoor family of Bollywood Once when asked in a Times of India interview what if her singing career had not taken off she said I would have become a cook I'd have cooked in four houses and made money Asha is a successful restaurateur and runs restaurants in Dubai and Kuwait called Asha's Asha's offers traditional north-western Indian cuisine It has a presence in the Wafi City development in Dubai as well as two restaurants in Kuwait at The Avenues Mall and the Marina Mall Asha Bhosle has a stake in the business Asha is not involved in day-to-day running of the restaurant which is looked after by the Wafi Group She takes care of the kitchen and the d cor She personally trained the chefs for almost six months According to a December report in the Menu Magazine Russell Scott a former head of Harry Ramsden's the fish and chips chain secured the UK rights to the Asha's brand and planned to open up to restaurants over the next five years As part of her chain of restaurants Asha's Ashatai has recently opened a new restaurant in Birmingham UK Asha's fashion statement is white sarees with sparkling embroidery pearls around her neck and diamonds Harrington of Kronos Quartet said The first time I met Ashaji she was dressed in the most beautiful sari with diamonds and looked very regal Then I looked down and saw that she was wearing tennis shoes I thought I love this woman Asha is a good mimicry artist as well At a concert at World Trade Center in Dubai on April she mimicked the song Kabhi To Nazar Milaao in the voices of Noor Jehan Lata Mangeshkar and Ghulam Ali Nowadays apart from singing and her restaurant Asha is also working on her autobiography Asha Bhosle has won seven Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards out of nominations She won her first two awards in and when Lata Mangeshkar still used to accept the award Mangeshkar asked not to be considered for the award nominations after to promote new talent After receiving the award in Bhosle emulated her elder sister and requested that her name not be considered for the nominations hereafter Despite this Bhosle is the most frequent winner of this award to date tying with Alka Yagnik She was later given a Special Award for Rangeela in and the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in