Legendary Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle dies aged 92

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The Indian playback star died in Mumbai after being admitted to hospital following a heart attack.

Her death marks the end of an era for Bollywood music.

Across a career that produced more than 12,000 songs, Bhosle became one of Indian cinema’s most recognisable voices, singing tracks that were lip-synced on screen by generations of actors.

She was widely celebrated for her versatility, moving between romantic ballads, dance numbers, ghazals, bhajans, qawwalis and pop songs, and worked with some of the biggest composers in Indian music.

Her best-known songs included Dum Maro Dum, Piya Tu Ab To Aaja and Mehndi Hai Rachnewali, while films including Teesri Manzil, Caravan, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Ijaazat, Saagar and Umrao Jaan featured some of her most acclaimed work.

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Bhosle also achieved international recognition, inspiring Cornershop’s 1997 hit Brimful of Asha and later collaborating with British musician Boy George. In the early 1990s, she also worked with Boy George and recorded a track with R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe.

Born on 8 September 1933 in Goar, Maharashtra, she came from the renowned Mangeshkar family and was raised in a musical household by her father, Deenanath Mangeshkar, an actor and classical singer.

She began singing at a young age, recording her first song for the Marathi film Majha Bal in 1943, before rising to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s through collaborations with composers including OP Nayyar, RD Burman and SD Burman.

Among the highlights of her catalogue were songs such as Aaiye Meherbaan (1958), Parde Mein Rehne Do (1968) and Dum Maro Dum (1971).

Her duets with Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey also became enduring favourites.

Bhosle carved out a career distinct from that of her sister, Lata Mangeshkar, who died in 2022, despite years of public comparisons and speculation over rivalry.

In 1971, Bhosle told film writer Raju Bharatan: “After all we'd both inherited... the bounty of music. No doubt didi [older sister in Hindi] had a headstart, but that only made me more determined to catch up with her.”Her personal life was also closely followed.

At 16, she eloped with her neighbour Ganpatrao Bhosle, in what was later described as a difficult marriage.

Mangeshkar later said Bhosle’s husband had isolated her from the family, “preventing contact for years”.

She told film historian Nasrin Munni Kabir that he had also taken Bhosle to music directors in an attempt to profit from her talent and control her career.

Bhosle left the marriage in 1960 as a single mother of three. She later married RD Burman in 1980. He died in 1994.

Away from film music, Bhosle remained active well into later life. She worked with Australian cricketer Brett Lee on the 2007 song You're the One for Me, which featured during the first Indian Premier League season.

Her biographer Raju Bharatan wrote: “Any meeting with Asha has to be a talk show. She will do all the talking, of course, interrupting the flow of words only to sing.

“You could make all the fun that you wanted of her - she would take it on the chin like the good sport that she is.”

Bhosle celebrated her 90th birthday with a live concert in Dubai in 2023.

Ahead of the performance, she said: “At 90, standing for three hours on stage and singing is a blessing.”

She continued working in later years, launching the online talent show Asha Ki Asha in 2020 and starting a YouTube channel, where she shared stories from her career.

In 2023, she said: “For me, music is my breath, external. I have spent my life with this thought. I have given a lot to music. I feel good I've come out of difficult times. Many times I felt I would not be able to survive, but I did.”