Singer Asha Bhosle, who will celebrate her 90th birthday next month with a concert in Dubai, looked back on her career in a recent interview and spoke about setting herself apart from her illustrious sister, the late Lata Mangeshkar. She said that she knew she’d have to develop a different vocal style from hers if she wanted any chance of standing out and surviving in the industry.
“Nobody would have given me work if I had sung like her,” she said in a new interview with a leading media house, adding that she realised this at the beginning of her career and started ‘experimenting’ with the kinds of songs she performed and even her voice. She said that she knew her voice was different from her sister’s, but she made it ‘sharper’ because she knew if she sang in a similar ‘soft’ tone, she wouldn’t get work.
It was after ‘Eena Meena Deeka’ that people began appreciating her versatility. They’d say that she was just as comfortable with a Madan Mohan number as she was with a Shankar Jaikishen track. While she was in Kolhapur, she’d listen to English songs and learn vocal modulation through them. “I would understand things like vibrating my voice and hitting straight notes,” she said.
Bhosle also claimed that she never wanted to become a playback singer at all but became one ‘due to circumstances’. She said that she still does her ‘riyaaz’ every morning and sometimes, when she is unable to sleep at night, she practices even at 2 am. She remains one of the most celebrated living vocalists in the country and has worked for eight decades. She sang her first film song in 1943.