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Late legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar became a legend not only for having a melodious voice, but also because of many twists and turns in her life, and the support of some experts from Bollywood’s music industry.

She was born in a Maharashtrian Brahmin family in 1929 and was the eldest of four siblings. Her father Deenanath Mangeshkar was a well-known classical singer and a Marathi actor. Her mother Shevanti (later renamed Shudhamati), was a Gujarati woman from Thalner (Maharashtra).

Lata Mangeshkar was named Hema at birth but later her parents renamed her Lata - after the female character Latika of one of her father’s plays. Deenanath was born in Goa and he adopted the surname Mangeshkar to represent his native town of Mangeshi, Goa. It was her father who first trained her in classical music – at the age of five.

In 1942, when she was only 13 years of age, her father died of heart disease, and this was the most shocking incident of her life. But this incident didn’t end her musical journey. Instead, it took a sharp turn. Her father’s friend – Master Vinayak (Vinayak Damodar Karnataki), the owner of Navyug Chitrapat Movie Company took care of her family. He then helped her in making a career in singing and acting. After Vinayak’s death in 1948, her career didn’t come to an end. She was liked by music director Ghulam Haider, who mentored her as a singer. He accompanied her to Bombay Talkies studio in Malad (Mumbai) where the film Majboor (1948) was being shot. Haider was the music composer for that film and finally she was selected as a playback singer for that film and the song Angrezi Chhora Chala Gaya was recorded in her voice. This was a major breakthrough in her career. After that, she got the opportunity to sing in many Bollywood films like Barsaat (1949), Andaz (1949), Mahal (1949), etc.

— The author is a software engineer having extensive publications on music.