It has been ‘wow’. That’s exactly how I would say it. For me, it’s been like a Hindi movie for over 30 years. There’s been a little bit of everything — fun, sadness, highs, lows, heartbreak, love, personal upheavals, and professional highs. One has experienced a little of all in these 30 years of being in the business, and it’s been amazing. I have loved every moment and look forward to the next 30 years.

I think I am different. I didn’t want to do what everybody is doing; I didn’t want to be put into a box. Somewhere, I just felt maybe I needed to pivot and do something different. I was very lucky to get some amazing offers. People kept asking me why was I not doing them, but I was never really drawn or attracted to it. But I have always said ‘never say never’. Maybe one day I just might turn around and say, ‘I want to do this. Maybe this is my calling.’ Somewhere, I was happy doing what I did. Back then, I wasn’t sure I had the bandwidth to carry an entire film, and being part of something impactful felt amazing. Maybe a part of me chose the easier path, but over time, I realized this is what I truly enjoyed.

I would like to say I have the last laugh. People may have an opinion, or they may want to ridicule or pull you down about something. But with all the good, there comes bad. There’s so much love and appreciation, which balances things out. At the end of the day, I am the one who sits and has the last laugh.

Well, I could just sit back and say, ‘I’ve had fun, I’ve been blessed to have that kind of career, and I am financially secure, so I don’t need to do anything beyond that.’ I could put my feet up and say that’s that, but I am not that person. I am greedy and hungry when it comes to work and opportunities. I feel all these opportunities have been given to me, and it is important for me to make the most of it. At some point, I didn’t realize that this was the path I was going to go down. I realized, why not throw myself into the deep end? Right from my first venture in collaboration for fashion, and now, a lot has happened. Each one has been a stepping stone.

I think it’s his sense of discipline and work ethic. When it comes to the way he leads his life, he’s very disciplined, he’s conscious and has a certain work ethic — always be on time and do things, which I think he’s got from me.

I have said this dozens of times: you don’t just take it with a pinch of salt, take it with a handful of salt. It is a platform. You are there, and it’s very simple. Either you choose to stay away from it, or you strike a balance. For me, I keep things out that I don’t need to engage with. I use social media purely as something that is good in terms of our work. At the same time, you use it in the right proportion, where you put out however much you want, and people get that much glimpse into your life. Enjoy it, have fun with it, and leave it at that. Don’t take it too seriously or get too bogged down by it. Don’t let it govern your life. You have to draw these lines somewhere, and then you are good.

Family, goes without saying. The girls that we hang out with, they are a phone call away, literally. They are a call away, and I know they will all be there. We stand up for each other and are each other’s support system. There are days where we don’t even connect; we may not talk, but we’ll always be there for each other.

I’ve grown up on a staple of Amitabh Bachchan’s films. I have loved his films during my growing-up years, and we keep watching them over and over again. Then, of course, I have always been a Shah Rukh Khan fan. I love his cinema. As you go along, there are so many others who do amazing work and are brilliant actors. But these are the ones I have always been a fan of.

Being resilient or being able to build a solid inside (inner self) takes a while; it doesn’t happen overnight. There are numerous instances that push you against the wall, where you feel there is no way out. But then you work on yourself. You get strong physically and mentally, and I continue to do that because that’s part of life and learning. There are days where I feel completely bogged down, but I also then dig into my reserves, which are pretty strong, which help me tide over difficult times. If I have to say something, I would always tell people to listen to their body. It may sound silly, but love yourself. As women, we always feel so pressured about so many things. If you are working, there’s always a section of society that will make you feel what you are doing is not good and will tell you, ‘Who’s at home taking care of the kids?’ If you look a certain way, they’ll be like, ‘Isn’t it time for her to give up?’ There’s always something to justify, always a system pushing back. So I just want to say: love yourself.

Asha Bhosle, whose voice foregrounded the rebellious notes of desire and abandon in Hindi film music at a time when such attributes were frowned upon in cinema and society, who overcame the looming shadow of her peerless sister Lata Mangeshkar to become the empress of a versatile music universe, and whose voice is sub-consciously part of every Indian's emotional archive, passed away on Sunday. She was 92.

Asha tai, as she was fondly called, was admitted to a Mumbai hospital on Saturday following exhaustion and chest infection.

A Dadasaheb Phalke recipient, her career spanned nearly eight decades and more than 11,000 songs; her best rendered under the baton of O P Nayyar and R D Burman.

Rollicking duets (especially with Kishore Kumar), bhajans, ghazals, qawwalis, discos, Indi-pop, Bhosle didn't just sing for every possible genre, she owned them all, enthralling Gen Now and Gen Nehru alike. "All singers are actors. We just act with our voices," she once said.

Her voice was an ideological antonym of her sister's. At its core, Lata's voice personified decorum and goodness, attributes tailor-made for decent leading ladies in the 1950s and 60s while Asha's embodied dissent created space for celluloid social outsiders such as cabaret dancers and gangster's girls.

Nobody also adapted better to the changing trends. And nobody defied age like her. It's scarcely believable that even in 2026, she collaborated with Gorillaz, a virtual British band. An era has ended. But Asha Bhosle is forever.

Societies clinging to the past while dreaming of the future are often trapped in a duality. India, just out of the clutches of colonialism, too experienced this. The nation’s attitude to the female playback voice was complicated. After all, voices are secret catalogues of social history.

Around Independence, several singers such as Zohrabai Ambalewali, Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnataki, Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, jostled for space and ascendancy in Hindi film music. But within a few years, Lata Mangeshkar’s voice encapsulating purity and propriety became the gold standard.

Asha Bhosle, almost four years younger, began her career under the shadow of her elder sister Lata. Keen to find her own voice, the Sangli-born singer listened to a farrago of foreign artistes: samba singer Carmen Miranda, the joyous Caterina Valente, even the breathless Elvis Presley. “Slowly,” Asha revealed in an interview to composer Salil Chowdhury on DD Bangla in 1993, “I carved out a different style from my sister.”

In time, the two became antonyms to each other. Lata’s voice had the innocence of a morning hymn, the sanctity of a temple while Asha’s evoked the sizzle of cabaret, the rush of a French kiss. “Lata didi and I are like Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru. Gandhi was great; Nehru wasn’t bad either,” Asha told Outlook magazine in April, 2006.

The sisters were fundamentally apart, even in their choices and their personalities. She thinks with her “head”, me with my “heart”, Asha once said. Perhaps, circumstances played a role. Lata started singing for films at 13 after their father singer-actor Deenanath Mangeshkar’s untimely demise. She never married. Lata disapproved when Asha eloped.

In the 1950s and 60s, Asha wasn’t the preferred singer of most A-list music directors, barring OP Nayyar. She was rarely the playback for major heroines. She once credited BR Chopra for giving her the chance to sing for a big movie, Dilip Kumar’s ‘Naya Daur’ (music: OP Nayyar, 1957).

By mid-60s, Asha had carved out her distinctiveness. Her range expanded. And her voice was richer in tone, more nuanced in texture. Three songs exemplify this. ‘Aagey bhi jaane na tu’ (Waqt, composer: Ravi, 1965) underlined a felicity for aligning each note with the lyric’s emotional intent. In ‘Teesri Manzil’ (1966), young composer R D Burman rewrote film music grammar, capturing the new musical zeitgeist. In ‘Teesri Kasam’, set in hinterland Bihar and released the same year, her rendition of ‘Pan khaye saiyan hamaaro’ was flawless flavouring the film with a folksy authenticity. The three belonged to three different musical worlds.

Music director R D Burman, whom she would marry in 1980, “really exploited the full potential of my voice and challenged me to greater heights,” she told journalist Kavita Chhibber in a long 2003 interview. “When he offered me Aaja aaja, I was petrified…but didi said you are a Mangeshkar and you can do it.” The remark reveals how Lata was also a mentor despite their differences.

Broadly speaking, R D preferred Lata for his more classical compositions. But the nightclubs with cigarette smoke and the grungy hippy joints were Asha’s fiefdom. These settings were home to some of the most furious and distinctive 70s rhythms. ‘Mera naam hai Shabnam’ (film: Kati Patang, 1970), ‘Piya tu ab to aaja’ (film: Caravan, 1971), ‘Dum maaro dum’ (film: Hare Rama Hare Krishna, 1972) and many more.

In 1981, ‘Umrao Jaan’ (music: Khayyam) became to Asha what films like ‘Anarkali’ and ‘Pakeezah’ were to Lata. Her voice became an extension of the courtesan’s melancholic life. “Through her voice, you reach Umrao Jaan’s soul,” Khayyam told this reporter in 2008.

Compared to Lata, Asha was more eager to embrace and adapt to shifting music trends. Hers was the sensual voice that the more conservative India sought to consign to the background. But as the country changed and evolved, she found wings. In 1980s, when disco was the celluloid favourite and ghazals the flavor of private albums, she sang ‘Disco Station’ for Bappi Lahiri (film: Hathkadi, 1982) and outshone Pakistani singer, Ghulam Ali, in Meraj-eGhazal (1983). And when Indi-Pop took centre stage in the 1990s, she delivered one of its most memorable tracks, “Jaanam samjha karo (1997).”

Much before the two sisters reached the autumn of their careers, Asha had become the preferred voice for a new generation of singers. She was their lighthouse and lodestar. Whether we like Asha or Lata has more to do with the person we are rather than the songs they sang. We see in their voices our own reflections. For true lovers of music, it is never Lata or Asha; it is always both.

Exemplary singer Asha Bhosle, whose life quilt was woven by skeins of struggle and triumph, passed away at age 92 Sunday. The evergreen artiste breathed her last at Breach Candy Hospital, a day after being hospitalized for cardiac and respiratory ailments.

An innocuous “chance” given to her by All India Radio at the age of 15 led into a career spanning 11,000 songs, the final flourish being a three-hour concert at age 90.

Her son Anand Bhosle said the final rites will be performed at Shivaji Park crematorium at 4pm Monday April 13 with full state honours. Members of the public can pay respects from 11am to 3pm at her residence Casa Grande in Lower Parel.

Born Sept 8, 1933 in Sangli to noted Natyasangeet exponent Pt Deenanath Mangeshkar and Shevantibai, Ashaji defied the adage that nothing grows beneath the shade of a vast banyan tree. She blossomed into a robust musical persona despite the abundant talent and fame of her older sister, legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar. “It is the sapling’s will to grow that helps it sprout,” she said.

Their rivalry became a frequent topic of conversation down the years. Siblings Meena, Usha and Hridaynath Mangeshkar were also stalwart artistes who bonded firmly as India’s first family of playback singing.

Financial compulsions initially forced Asha ji to accept songs that Lata ji declined -cabaret numbers, and songs picturized on the lead heroine’s sister or friend, dancer and vamp. But that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Asha ji’s full plumage of vocals unfurled before the nation. Her partnership with Helen is history.

In her heyday she recorded seven or eight songs, flitting between studios, languages and genres. Old visuals of her recording in a pastel cotton sari with a flower in her hair slowly graduated to beautiful silken saris with similar coloured faux blossoms as the years wore on.

Diverse composers like Madan Mohan, O P Nayyar, Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, R D Burman and Khayyam, and Marathi music directors Shridhar Phadke and Hridaynath Mangeshkar partnered her journey. Between her early hits like ‘Aaiye meherbaan’ to ‘Tora mann darpan kehlaye’ and ‘Sapna mera toot gaya’ to the memorable Umrao Jaan ghazals, everything in between was as consequential.

The in-house Mangeshkar pool of talent also created a fragrant bouquet of melodies. Ashaji laughingly recalled how she felt shy to sing ‘Tarun aahe raatra ajoon’, a beautifully erotic Marathi bhavgeet composed by her brother Hridaynath ‘Bal’ Mangeshkar. Son Hemant Bhosle tuned the whisperlike ‘Jaage jaage nainon mein’ for her in Damaad.

However the stairway to heaven was paved with gold and rocks both. Asha ji was candid about the numerous setbacks she suffered in her personal life including domestic abuse by her first husband Ganpatrao Bhosle, whom she eloped with and married as an impressionable teenager. Her liaison with composer O P Nayyar ended in bitterness while her second marriage to R D Burman was no bed of roses either.

“Irrespective of all the ups and downs I was facing in my personal life, the moment I stood before the microphone, I shut that out of my mind and concentrated solely on the song I had to deliver. There were days my children were sick but I had to come to the studio and sing a peppy or romantic number. God gave me troubles but he also gave me the strength to overcome them. I have worked hard. Very hard,” she said in an interview to Doordarshan.

When I was in school, I read a poem called The Highwayman, which was very effective. I was thinking this is such a thing to say, that ‘I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.’ Then there was a song actually in Khuda Gawah (1992), in which the character of Badshah Khan (Amitabh Bachchan) says, ‘Main vaapas aaunga; main agar mar bhi gaya phir bhi vaapas aaunga’. I remember the impact of that song. Even while shooting this film, I didn’t think that it would be called Main Vaapas Aaunga. There was this scene we were shooting on a moving train. I had briefed Vedang Raina (actor), who is playing Kinu in the film, that he comes and he screams these same words. He’s making this promise to somebody, and it happened to be those words. During the take, I realised that this has to be the title of the film.

I saw some on the internet, but I’m not worried about that at all. This is not two love stories; it is just one story.

There is no love for Pakistan in the film. It’s a very personal story of one person. And it is not casting an allegation. It is not saying anything which is politically one way or the other. Anybody watching the film will not feel slighted by the fact that this is catering to anyone. The second thing is, is there a time for a love story to work? I’ve seen all of my life that any good film, whether it’s violent, bold, romantic or a comedy, is working at any particular time that it’s released. The audience is very strategic in the way that it wants to see films, and if the socio-political climate becomes very intense, maybe comedies will also work very well, and a film which is very intense and bloodthirsty will also work.

Perfection— no! As for things which made me happy, there are certain points in Rockstar (2011) and Amar Singh Chamkila (2024). In Chamkila, there was this portion where we had a beautiful sunset, and somehow, we had time in hand. I don’t know what we were doing, so I just asked Diljit (Dosanjh), ‘Please sit here, and I’ll play the song. You just listen to it and turn and look at the lens when I say.’ That’s the longest take in the film. And I thought, let’s take a chance at Mainu Vida Karo. So then I played it, and he heard it for the first time. Sometimes, you don’t even know why, and it feels nice.

Oh yes, I discover flaws very early. I remember that I saw Socha Na Tha (2005) after many, many years, and then I was laughing along with it, which is not something that ever happened for the first 10-15 years since its release. For a film like Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017), there was something very nice, which did not really turn out nicely. This whole angle of somebody being a womaniser or looking at themselves like an unstable character but having a story behind it… It was very enticing. I feel that even in Love Aaj Kal (2020), there were certain things which were underwhelming. There was a very beautiful thought, but I couldn’t bring it out in the best possible value.

There is no present plan as such. But hopefully there’ll be something that will have to top the other work that we’ve done.

Everyone here is very passionate and always trying to come across as strategic and professional. But I think they’re just a group of passionate drifters. I don’t know how they have so much time to just do gup-shup. When I met (actor) Shah Rukh Khan... he was sitting calmly for 5-6 hours, talking to me. How does he have so much time? It’s the same for all of the Khans, various other producers, directors — whoever you meet. I love that about the film industry. But unfortunately, what happens in the film industry is that with popularity comes power. Each one of them have so many people on their social media… it’s almost unfair. And if somebody has to say something about politics, etc., maybe we are not the most qualified, but we have to be damn careful.

I also feel lucky to be a part of the industry because I didn’t know anybody when I came here. It’s only with the support of these people that I could do anything.

There isn’t a revival of Takht right now on the cards. But that is a film I will definitely make while I can still breathe and stand on my feet.

I consider it to be the strongest screenplay that was developed, written by Sumit Roy. Full credit to him — he’s the writer of the film — and I believe it’s the best-written piece of work in my career. What I have been developing is something nobody’s actually talking about. Thank God for that. So in the garb of this rumour, in the garb of this K3G speculation, actually jo ho raha hai, jo main likh raha hoon, jo main banane wala hoon, uske baare mein koi baat nahi kar raha.

Roohi. She’s a quieter, empathetic, hypersensitive child. She also follows parental instructions, which is what I did. I was a good kid. Yash is a little more of a brat, but he’s also very sensitive. They are good kids.

Sid has been a student (launched by me in Student Of The Year; 2012), and he’s also been very close to the film company. We consider him and Kiara (Advani) family to us. Sid and I have been chatting about the possibility of coming together for a strong film, but right now it’s all too soon.

I have no idea! Maybe I don’t have an interesting life, so this is what makes my life interesting. I always say: love me, hate me, just don’t be indifferent to me. And I’m glad that Reddit, blind items or speculation keep the interest in what I’m doing alive. That means I may have done something right in my life to have created this sense of curiosity around me. Many of those blind items, when I read them, I find hilarious. Some of them are quite close to the truth, and some are distant from reality... Many a time, I’m amused, but I no longer get upset or angry at either the trolling or the speculation.

Many celebrity friends have asked me, ‘Why are you so calm even in a crisis?’ Even when there was a lot of Bollywood bashing happening at one point, a very close friend, who is also a movie star, came over and said, ‘Is everything okay? Why are you so calm? You should be reacting’. My parents raised me to know that if something is completely untrue, and people don’t know the person you are, then what is the point of getting upset? I would be upset if what they were saying about me was actually true.

The younger generation, with social media, technology and constant noise around them, is very restless and anxious. So I think we’re dealing with an anxiety-ridden generation that wants validation of stardom very fast. I don’t blame them because they are judged daily. None of us, when we started off, were recipients of this level of judgment. The kind of scrutiny that exists today is traumatizing. It can take a toll on your mental health. So I don’t judge them for decisions they make in their life and career that I may or may not agree with. I get it. I hear them. I see what they’re going through.

If you ask me whether I want my children to enter this profession, I can’t give you a resounding yes, because I know how tough it is, even for insiders.

It’s the way of the world, and you have to accept it. As a filmmaker, I don’t work with just one actor all the time. I want to try different artistes, stories and technicians. So if someone wants a fresh start or a different approach, that’s fine. Anyone who has left our agency, I will always wish them well and continue to work with them. Many have left and I still collaborate with them. I’m not a talent manager per se, it’s just one arm of my company. I’m a filmmaker first. If someone is right for my film, I won’t cast them based on which agency they belong to.

It is very worrisome... My thoughts are with those facing it today. But I do believe we are in good hands. Authorities act immediately and provide security. Every time I’ve reached out in a difficult situation, my city and state have been very supportive. I’ve always felt protected here, and I believe we will continue to be.

What makes me angry is people who are not on time. I have an aversion to lack of punctuality. What makes me sad… I’m an old-fashioned loyalist. I will always be grateful to Aditya Chopra (filmmaker), Shah Rukh Khan (actor) and Yash Raj Films for being my mentors and my beginning. I say with pride that I would wipe the floors of YRF and Red Chillies. I would do anything that was asked because I owe my entire being to them. I don’t know if that level of loyalty exists anymore. But I am grateful to those who remain loyal to me. That is the first quality I look for in a person.