RIP Lata Mangeshkar: 10 Lesser Known Facts About The Legendary Playback Singer

Having begun her music career in the 1940s, Lata Mangeshkar, who died in Mumbai on Sunday (Feb 6), sang for movies and varied albums even till a few years ago. There was hardly any award that Mangeshkar wasn’t conferred with. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was bestowed upon her in 1989 by the Government of India. She won the Padma Bhushan in 1969, the Padma Vibhushan in 1999, and in 2001, in recognition of her contributions to the nation, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Here are 10 unknown facts about the legendary Bollywood singer. 

1. She recorded over 30,000 songs in 14 Indian languages, making her the most recorded voice in history.

2. International DJ Lord Paramour sampled her vocals for their song 'Jalnina'. They did that as a tribute to her.

3. She was born as Hema and later changed to Lata based on a character Latika from one of her father’s plays- BhaawBandhan.

4. She attended school only for a single day and 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 for ever.

5. Sashadhar Mukherjee who was making a film- 'Shaheed' (1948) dismissed her voice because it was “too thin”.

6. After the song- 'Aayega Aanewala' from the movie 'Mahal' in 1949, Lata Mangeshkar became a star singer overnight. The song is considered as one of the toughest songs to sing.

7. Earlier there used to be no category for best playback singer in the Filmfare awards but was added after her protest, in 1958.

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

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

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