Lata Mangeshkar, who was a big fan of cricket, helped the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) gather money to reward the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team. The concert was a hit, and BCCI paid Rs. 1 lakh to each player from the concert money. As an honorary gesture, the BCCI always had two tickets reserved for her for every international match played in India. 

Not many know that actor Shraddha Kapoor’s late maternal grandfather, singer Pandit Pandharinath Kolhapure, was Mangeshkar’s cousin. She was referred to as aaji by Kapoor. Mangeshkar also adored former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who referred to her as aai. “I can never forget the day he called me aai for the first time,” she had said.

At the age of five, she started acting in her father Deenanath Mangeshkar’s (actor-singer) Marathi musical plays. She also had a small role in the first Hindi film by Master Vinayak, Bari Ma (1945). As a producer, she worked on the Marathi film Vadai (1953) and Hindi films Jhaanjhar (1953), Kanchan (1955) and Lekin (1990).

On the 10th anniversary of Rang De Basanti (2006), director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra revealed that Mangeshkar stood for eight hours to record the song Luka Chuppi: “She stood at the mic, we were in the room. We kept some flowers, a bottle of water and a chair for her. (But) for eight hours, she sang the song and stood there.”

The Queen of Melody loved music so much that on her first day of school, she started giving music lessons to other kids. As per reports, when the teacher asked her to stop, she got offended and left, never to return. However, she got honorary doctorates from six universities, including New York University, according to a report by One India.

Mangeshkar stayed unmarried and maintained a dignified silence on any reports of linkups. In a 2013 interview with Hindustan Times, she said, “There are some things only for the heart to know. Let me keep it that way.”