‘I have no plans for myself; people make them for me’
Says Asha Bhosle, who celebrates her 88th birthday today, and shares interesting anecdotes from her childhood
Veteran playback singer Asha Bhosle turns 88 today. And the songstress has no plans for her birthday. Ask her why and she promptly says she waits for her family to make plans.
“I have no plans for myself; people make them for me. Birthday celebrations are for youngsters, and when they become older, they celebrate with their wives and children. And as the joke goes, ‘When a wife wished a husband Happy Birthday, the husband asked, where is the ‘happy’ in a birthday after marriage?’” she grins impishly.
For Bhosle, the best birthdays are when the mother prays for the long life of the child. “It was the best feeling when my aai (mother) brought out a plate with a lighted diya and gave sweets to all of us and prayed for my long life; I am 88 now. Those are some of the wonderful memories I have of my birthday,” she says, recalling her childhood.
Sharing an interesting anecdote from her 60th birthday celebration, Bhosle says, “My children wanted to surprise me. The house was full of flowers and I had to keep attending to the calls and also make sure the flowers were properly arranged and not in anyone’s way. The whole place was brimming with flowers with hardly any space left for us to move about. By evening, I was exhausted. And to top that, my children, Nandu (Anand) and Varsha, got into a fight over the choice of restaurant. I was fed up and upset with all that fighting. Frustrated, I told them to take me wherever they felt like. Then they took me to a restaurant; it was dark. They held my hand, made me ascend the stairs, with the lights slowly turning. My mother, didi [Lata
Mangeshkar], my other siblings, and some playback singers of my generation were also present for my birthday party.”
Bhosle, who has been into playback singing for the past 78 years, recorded some songs recently. “I keep singing. I don’t even know when the films are made and released. But if a song becomes, then the realisation dawns that I had sung the song,” she adds. Perhaps her childlike enthusiasm is why she remains so grounded even after collaborating with the best people in the business like Boy George, Code Red, and even cricketer and singer Brett Lee. Adding another feather to her cap, Bhosle became the first Indian singer to be nominated for the Grammys in 1997 for the album Legacy — earning her the title ‘Queen of Indipop’.
Despite her age, the legend is willing to adapt and embrace modern-day technology. She started her own YouTube channel last. Reminiscing about her pandemic time, the veteran singer said, “It was during the pandemic when we realised that there were so many talented people sitting at home. Many people never get a platform. So, I held a talent contest online and selected five winners from a pool of 4,000 people. I did not have a sponsor, but I gave them cash prizes — Rs 1 lakh for the winner and Rs 25,000 each to the other four. It is not much, but recognition of their talent was important,” she says.
That’s not all. During the lockdown, she kept herself busy and started a web show, Baatein Purani Yaad Aati Hai. “Nandu shot all the episodes on a phone. We got a good response for it. I am a very positive person, and I like doing all this,” she says.
Apart from singing, her restaurant franchise, Asha’s, also keeps her busy. Currently, the franchise is making its presence felt in the UAE and Birmingham, England, where the Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise dined a few days ago. “I am told he liked the food so much that he ordered the dishes again. I was happy with the way we have made and been running the restaurant even during the pandemic. Nandu keeps implementing various ideas to make the place happening. But now, I am feeling left out. I feel I should have been there at the Birmingham franchise of my restaurant when Tom Cruise was there," she sighs.