Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar is an Indian playback singer, and occasional musiccomposer. She is one of the bestknown and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkars career started in 1942 and has spanned over seven decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirtysix regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi and Hindi. She is the elder sister of singers Asha Bhosle, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. Indias highest award in cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, was bestowed on her in 1989 by the Government of India. She is the second vocalist, after M. S. Subbulakshmi, to have ever been awarded the Bharat Ratna, Indias highest civilian honour.

Lata Mangeshkar was born in a Marathispeaking Gomantak Maratha family, in the princely state of Indore, part of the Central India Agency . Her father, Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar was a classical singer and theater actor. Her mother Shevanti who was from Thalner, Maharashtra, was Deenanaths second wife. The familys last name used to be Hardikar Deenanath changed it to Mangeshkar in order to identify his family with his native town, Mangeshi in Goa. Lata was named Hema at her birth. Her parents later renamed her Lata after a female character, Latika, in one of her fathers plays, BhaawBandhan. Lata is the eldest child of her parents. Meena, Asha, Usha and Hridaynath are her siblings in sequence.

Source: Wikipedia