Author Archive

Lata Mangeshkar: Aaj Kishore Da ka janamdin hai. Kishore Da aap bohot yaad aa rahe ho. (It is Kishore Da’s birthday. I miss you a lot.).

Madhur Bhandarkar: Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hai joh makam woh phir nahi aate…unless it’s #KishoreKumar who sings on & on….Happy B’Day Kishore Da!

Kabir Bedi: Nice! @google felicated Kishore Kumar on his 85th birthday. Happy Birthday, Kishoreda! Knowing you was fun!

Vishal Dadlani: Kishore Kumar. Nothing else need be said. The voice, the emotion, the ...

The unit of Pyar Ajnabee Hai was recording the title song (also a wonderful song by KK and in a female version, Lata Mangeshkar) when the recording was finished. All of a sudden, KK told Yogesh, the lyricist and his musicians to stick around as he had an impromptu idea for a song. He told Yogesh of the tune he had just thought of and told him he wanted a song with words like junoon, diwangi, luft. He got ...

My father Kunjalal Ganguli, was a pleader (advocate) who earned Rs 30 a month. My mama, Dhananjay Banerjee, a classical singer, was the only family link I had with  music. But I was never trained to be a singer. It was my brother Dadamoni who  learnt music from the well-known Saraswati Devi.

Very early in life I was fascinated by K.L. Saigal. I used to save my pocket  money to buy his records. He’s my real guru.

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Kaka was my favourite uncle . Not that we saw him very frequently or were extremely close. But he was very childlike and innocent. There was always a sense of wonder about him.

His eccentric ways weren’t just for outsiders. If others complained that they weren’t allowed past his gate, his behaviour was not any different with us. He’d do it with us too. There were times when he would himself invite our family over for lunch, ...

Pritish Nandy: I understand you are quitting Bombay and going away to Khandwa…
Kishore Kumar: Who can live in this stupid, friendless city where everyone seeks to exploit you every moment of the day? Can you trust anyone out here? Is anyone trustworthy? Is anyone a friend you can count on? I am determined to get out of this futile rat race and live as I’ve always wanted to. In my native Khandwa, the land of my forefathers. ...