Bollywood legend Lata Mangeshkar, ‘Nightingale of India’, dies at 92

Mangeshkar dominated Bollywood music for more than half a century, and is considered by many to be the Indian film industry’s greatest-ever playback singer

Indian PM Narendra Modi said Mangeshkar’s death had left ‘a void in our nation that cannot be filled’. Two days of national mourning have been announced

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Lata Mangeshkar pictured at the launch of her album ‘Saadgi’ in Mumbai in 2007. Photo: AP

Published: 1:51pm, 6 Feb 2022

Bollywood superstar Lata Mangeshkar, known to millions as the “Nightingale of India” and a regular fixture of the country’s airwaves for decades, died on Sunday morning at the age of 92.

Mangeshkar was born in 1929 and started her musical training early under the tutelage of her father Deenanath, singing in his theatrical productions when she was just five.

Her father’s death when she was only 13 forced her to take on the role of breadwinner to support four younger siblings, and the family eventually moved to Mumbai in 1945.

Lata Mangeshkar, centre, pictured during a visit to Hong Kong in 1994. Photo: SCMP

There she pursued a career as a playback singer, recording tracks to be mimed by actors, and her high-pitched voice soon became a staple of Bollywood blockbusters.

In a move reflecting her huge following, she was invited by the government to sing a patriotic tribute to the soldiers killed in the 1962 Sino-Indian war at India’s Republic Day commemorations in January 1963.

Her rendition of Oh People of My Country reportedly moved then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to tears.

In the following decades, composers and film producers alike vied to sign the prolific Mangeshkar for their movies.