My father had his own drama company and in those days, dramas were synonymous with music. Obviously, my father, who was a well-known singer and used to teach us, left a musical legacy in the family. A particular incident sparked off my singing. It so happened that once my father asked his shagird (disciple) to practise a raag while he finished some work. I was playing nearby and suddenly a note of the raag that the shagird was rendering, jarred. And the next minute, I was correcting him. When my father returned, he discovered a shagird in his own daughter. Early next morning, I was given a tanpura and he began teaching me. I recollect starting off with raag Puriya Dhanashree at the age of six.

I've had to make many sacrifices all my life. When I was a child my father passed away. There were only sacrifices to be made thereafter. Karna hi padta tha. I was the eldest child of a family of daughters with only one brother who was the youngest of the lot. Hridayanath was only 4 when our father died. I had to shoulder all the responsibilities. When a person is young he or she's tempted to shrug off family responsibilities and move on in life. This didn't happen with me. At least not as far as I know. Even if I strayed I didn't keep flowing with the current. I came back and did the right thing by the family. This was God's will. I had to shoulder familial responsibilities. But whatever I got beyond that, is due to a bit of hard work—yes. But I always feel I've got much more than I deserve. Maybe that's why I have evolved as an artiste.

I wouldn't like to say about that. But people who accused me of practising a monopoly were wrong. The media fuelled the rumours about my monopoly. The first question I was always asked during interviews was about my supposed monopoly. Once I was even asked if I tampered with the equipment during other singers' recordings. Ab bataayiye main kyon aisa karun? I never bothered with what other singers were doing. When Runa Laila came to India for the first time. I went to her first recording for Kalyanji-Anandji eventhough I had a fever. They said I was just indulging in dikhawa, that in fact I had gone to see how she sang. Arrey mujhe kya padi hai kaun kaisa gaata hai! Runa Laila met me with lots of affection. Later she too was poisoned against me. Even Vani Jairam, I praised all the time. She still turned around to say I wouldn't let her sing. Do you know Anuradha Paudwal sang the first song of her career for my brother in a Marathi film directed by Vasant Joglekar. Arrey, forget about female singers, even some male singers accused of trying to stop them from singing. Ab isska kyon jawaab hai? Anyway I wish them all the best. If they were happy abusing me then all the best to them. No abuse can make a hole in my soul.

This is true. I’ll give you two examples. Ehsaan Tera Hoga Mujhparin Junglee and O Mere Shah-e-Khuba in Love In Tokyo, both composed by Shankar-Jaikishan. Both the songs were first sung by Mohd Rafi Saab. Then they decided they wanted the same songs sung by me. They came to me after filming the songs with the leading ladies, Saira Banu in Junglee and Asha Parekh in Love In Tokyo. And I was asked to sing the songs exactly the same way, since it was already shot with the heroines in Rafi Saab’s voice.I was’t allowed to  lower the scale of the original tunes since it was already filmed. So I had no choice but to sing in Rafi Saab’s pitch. I remember how difficult it was for me. And I was very upset with Shankar-Jaikishan for making me do this.

There have been better singers than me, like K L Saigal saab and Noor Jehan ji, and there will be better singers than me in the future. I always say whatever skills I’ve imbibed are god’s gift. I’ll also admit that it’s never been an insurmountable challenge for me to sing anything. Every artiste has a talent. What the artiste does with that talent is up to that artiste.

 Kishore da (Kishore Kumar) without doubt. We were constantly entertained during, before and after recordings with him. He would have us in splits. But he would get serious in front of the music composer. But he was very sad under the mask. A month before his death I got to know how unhappy he was. He called me to share his sorrow. He didn’t want to come home as there would be too many people there. So we met at mutual friends’ place where I saw the other, somber, side of him. I’ll never forget what he told me about his life that evening. I can’t share that, but I had never imagined he was so unhappy from within. He said I was his rakhi  sister and he wanted to share his grief with me. After listening to him I told him I was there for him whenever, wherever he needed me.

The love that I’ve received from my well-wishers and fans. Woh pyar nahin hota toh na jaane hum kahaan hote (if it wasn’t for that love, I don’t know where I would be). Yeh bhagwan ki kripa hai (this is god’s grace)... that I still continue to get this kind of affection. What more can I hope for?

 I don’t see the need to reveal every detail about my life. Most importantly, people go away with their written words hurting a lot of individuals and families. Sach aksar kadwa hota hai. I don’t want hurt anyone. In any case people don’t need to know everything about me.In my opinion every human being has areas in his or her life that is to kept away from the everyone.Time teaches us to sift between the good and the bad, between the truth and the lies. Some things are best left unsaid. I believe, let the past be buried. Bahot logon ne mera dil dukhaya hai. That’s their karma, their destiny. Why should I turn around and abuse them?

So many singers have accused me of stealing their songs. I never did that. And I never saw the need to protest. The truth will always remain the truth. Poet and lyricist Pandit Narendra Sharma, who was a father-figure to me, taught me self-restrain.When I was young, I had a violent temper. I used to fight back at injustice. But Panditji taught me to pay no heed to the naysayers. Then there was my Baba in Kolhapur, he used to call me Gyaneshwar and said that I had so much to learn. My mother was also a great source of inspiration. My father passed away when I was very young. So my mother was like both my parents.

Zindagi ne bahot kuch sikhaya (life taught me a lot). To value those who are down and out. The world tends to ignore and abuse the weak. My parents taught me to always help the needy. We saw very hard days. In our home there were free meals for every guest. But when we fell on hard times there was no food for the family. There were days when my siblings and I didn’t eat the entire day. I learnt to share what I had with others. Believe me, the joy you feel in giving is much greater than the joy one feels in receiving. Whenever someone comes to me for help I do all I can. Ho sakta hai  kayee log mujhe bewaqoof banaake chalein jaatein ho. But I believe in giving what I’ve got.

They must learn Hindustani classical music and they must not get carried way by overnight success. Humility is the key to longevity.

Not true.The echo effect in the Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya song was achieved by singing away in a distance from the microphone, but not in the bathroom. Please! And I did faint once. But it wasn’t for a song by Salil da. It was a song by Naushad saab for the film Amar, filmed on Madhubala.

That was Salil da’s idea. But yes, I did put in my own harkat once in a while. Once Rafi saab and I were recording a duet for Shankar-Jaikishan. During the rehearsals I decided to improvise at one point in the song. But I didn’t reveal my harkat during rehearsals. I kept it to myself and I sang it only during the final take. When the final take happened everyone was thrilled by my improvisation. But Rafi saab was very upset. All this was in good spirit. No harm meant.

I never got the chance to do that. My father passed away in 1942, and three-four months after his death, I had to start working. There was a responsibility on my shoulders to run the household. It was my duty as the eldest child in the house. Besides my mother, I had four sisters and a brother.

It has been very good. When I started out, there was so much work that I couldn’t think of doing anything else. I would go for recordings by 8.30am, that too in trains. I used to come home at night. I was travelling alone everywhere. But the enthusiasm with which people worked at that time was very good. Things were beautiful. I used to hear a new song every day, and I felt good about singing those songs. Also, working with music directors such as Shankar Jaikishanji, Khemchand Prakashji, Naushad saab, Shyam Sundar and SD Burman felt good. They were all understanding and helped me out. Then, when Hridaynath Mangeshkar (brother) started [composing music], I got a new path. With him, I recorded gyaneshwari, meera bhajans and three adhyays of Bhagavadgita. So, it was a new experience for me because we were used to singing songs in mostly Urdu and Hindi. Then, Salil Chaudhary (composer) encouraged me to sing a Bengali number, and I started singing those for him.

Shraddha is related to me. Padmini Kolhapure and Shivangi’s (Shraddha’s mother) father, Pandharinath Kolhapure, was my aunt’s son; we spent our childhood together. So, Shraddha is like my granddaughter. I have not seen any of her films, but people appreciate her work. I like Alia Bhatt, par bahut chhoti lagti hai (she looks a bit too young on screen; laughs). I guess she entered the industry very early. But she is a good actor.

Today’s heroines aren’t like the earlier ones. But that’s okay, since this generation is different too. Par aaj-kal jo dresses pehne jaate hai usse mujhe sakht aitraaz hai (I am against the kind of dresses actresses wear today). I don’t like them. But they are all doing good work. I also like the way Priyanka Chopra acts. She can slip into any role. I love Deepika Padukone too.

I surely miss all of them, including Kishore da (Kumar; singer), Mukesh bhaiya (singer), Hemant da (Kumar; singer), Talat saab (Mahmood; singer) and Rafi saab (Mohamed; singer). I miss all the music directors as well. Only Khayyam saab (Mohammed Zahur; composer) is there from the old times; everyone else is new. I also take up fewer projects now. I have heavily reduced my work in films, as now I mostly focus on devotional songs such as ‘Shree krishnaye namah’, ‘Namah shivaye, ‘Gayatri mantra’ and the ‘Hanuman chalisa’. Recently, I also recorded songs for a great saint in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

It was not a conscious decision. However, I feel I am a little unfit for the kind of music that is being made today. There is a big difference between what I sang earlier, and what is being made now. I am not saying this music is bad, but there are too many beats. The sur (notes) and kavita (poetry) are also not as good. There is a lot of western influence, which was there earlier too, but not as much as today.

I just have one thing in my heart. I had learnt classical singing from my father. In 1945, I learnt from Ustad Aman Ali Khan Bhendi Bazaar Waale (singer). Then, I became a disciple of Amanat Khan Dewaswale (singer). Later, I learnt from Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahab’s disciple, Tulsidas Sharma, for a few days. I always have this regret that I couldn’t sit (like other classical musicians) on stage, and perform classical music. Since I sang in films, I didn’t find the time to do riyaaz. That has remained an unfulfilled desire. But it is okay, I have received a lot. Har insaan ko sab kuch nahin milta (Everyone doesn’t get everything).

I’ll tell you what happened. We had a Musicians’ Association in the 1960s . Mukesh bhaiyya, Talaj Mehmood saab had started a campaign for artistes to get royalty so that they would have a comfortable old age. Main to leti thi royalty but I also wanted other artistes to get it. Rafi saab was instigated into opposing my campaign. In a meeting among musicians he said, ‘We get money for what we sing from producers and that’s the end of what we get.’ When he was asked his opinion Rafi saab turned to Mukesh bhaiyya and said, ‘I guess this Maharani here will say whatever has to be said.’ I said, ‘Of course I am a Maharani. But why are you calling me that?’ He said in front of everyone at the meeting that he won’t sing with me. I turned around and said, ‘Yeh kasht aap kyon kar rahe hain? Main hi nahin gaaongi aapke saath.’ I stormed out of the meeting and called up every music director to inform them that I would thereafter not sing with Rafi saab. We didn’t sing together for almost three years.

I liked singing for Salilda (Salil Chowdhury) because his compositions were very challenging. I also loved singing for Sajjad Husain saab, then definitely SD Burman dada and RD. But in my opinion the biggest achievement was by Shankar-Jaikishan. With Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat they changed the way we looked at playback singing.

Nargis, Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Nutan. I’d modulate my voice according to their personality.

I like Rani Mukerji and Kajol but I miss the camaraderie that I shared with the earlier heroines. I really miss Kishore Kumar, also Rafi saab, Mukesh bhaiyya, Shankar-Jaikishan and Madan bhaiyya who fought with me when I couldn’t be with him for raksha bandhan. That sense of apnapan is gone.

Yes. I listened to music whenever I could. But it was not really the external influences that made me a singer. Music was in me. I was full of it. Tunes floated through my mind endlessly, and I used to hum them all the time, even when having my meals. I remember that, once at school, I even counted things in terms of the notes in the musical scale! And I had an amazing memory as well as a capacity for musical imitation. I could remember tunes heard years ago and reproduce them exactly.

Certainly.The training has made it easy for me to understand and execute what a music director wants. It has given my voice a consistency and flexibility which singers of film songs often lack. I also think that the training has helped my voice retain its musical qualities all these years. Voices of playback singers do not generally last that long.

Those were hard times, we were very poor and desperately in need of money. I had, therefore, to work without respite. I remember occasions when I worked without food and sleep for two days and more. And then there were prejudices to be overcome. It used to be said disparagingly in those days that songs sung by Maharashtrians smelt of dal and rice! I had to disprove it and cultivate a fine Hindustani accent as well. There was so much else to learn, too, and I had to do it mostly by myself.

I would not say that such an influence is inherently bad. There has always been a lot of give and take in the world of music. Our classical music itself is a blend of many influences; and the Western Pop singers have borrowed a great deal from Africa and elsewhere. I do not, therefore, mind it if our music absorbs foreign influences. What I do mind is indiscriminate borrowing which creates the kind of hybrid, hotchpotch  music we have today.

Kehna mushqil hai (hard to say).  When I was still singing on stage, the songs most in demand were Ae mere watan ke logon, Aayega aanewala (Mahal), Pyar kiya to darna  kya (Mughal-e-Azam), Bindiya chamkegi (Do Raaste) and so many others. But now I see so many of my other songs are gaining a special popularity.

My adolescence. Mein seedhe bachpan se jawani mein chali gayi. (I went straight from my childhood to youth). After my father passed away, I became the sole bread earner of the family.  There was no time to do all the normal things that children do as they grow up. One day I was playing dolls. The next day I was on a train looking for  opportunities to sing at various recording studios.

Tamil and Russian. The Tamil language was really difficult for me to handle. I would  note down all the lines in English and then master their pronunciation, as they are very particular about the accent and diction. Singing in Russian on stage was my other big challenge. It was tough. My Russian songs are not to be found anywhere, as they (in Russia) did not allow my renderings to be recorded. What I sang on stage remained there only.

There  were many. But the one that really stood out was for Naushad saab in Baiju  Bawra. It  was the song Dur koi gaye dhun yeh sunaye with Shamshad Begum. The set  to shoot this dance number had been put up. I had not been able to record the song because I was out of town. Naushad Saab rang me up and said, ‘Aap bas aa jayiye. Hum  record karenge aur woh gana shoot karenge.’ At first, I didn’t understand what he  meant. What he was saying was, they were were waiting to get the song on the set. I had to fly back, record the song and then they were to shoot the song. This was very unusual.

To value those who are down and out. My parents taught me to always help the needy. We saw very hard days. In our home there were free meals for every guest. But when we fell on hard times there was no food for  the family. There were days when my siblings and I didn’t eat the entire day. I learnt to share what I had with others. Believe me the joy you feel in giving is much greater than the joy one feels in receiving.

I read books, listen to music. I was a voracious reader spending nights reading novels, shayari and poems. I have read compositions of Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Pt Narendra Sharma, Maithilisharan Gupt and Suryakant Tripathi Nirala. Among Urdu poets, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Mirza Ghalib are my favourites. I have also read all the novels of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee which were translated from Bengali to Marathi. I studied a lot about Swami Vivekananda and Lokmanya Tilak. Not many know, I have read Sherlock Holmes too. But then, my eye power was diagnosed and I got dependent on chashma (glasses). I cant read much now.

The music of 50s, 60s and 70s was very nice and had a sort of permanence attached to it - as you can see they are relished even today. Even we used to feel happy singing then.But today the dimensions have changed. What we hear today is short lived. Music fades away within weeks. And no one wants to listen to today’s songs once the euphoria has died.People today want songs with emphasis on beat. The significance of lyrics has faded.In fact even the movies these days are such that stirring lyrics and melodious songs do not fit in.Sometimes I feel I do not belong to this new Bollywood.

Till 1974 I never went out or sang on any platform other than in films. But in that year I was requested by Nehru Memorial to perform at a show in Albert Hall in London. I gave my assent and we went to perform at this place that was for the first time opened for an Indian. Dilip Kumar and other stars accompanied me. It was tremendous success and was loved by the audience there. The joy I felt then is yet to find a match.

I have worked with so many composers and they have been so different in their approach towards music that it is really impossible to zero down on someone in particular as a favourite. I confess that I miss the music of yore because it was so different and each composer had his own style. Madan Mohan’s music was more gazal type, Jaydev’s was classical based and Salil Choudhary and Hemant Da’s compositions had a touch of folk music. Each musician had his own stamp over music, so that you could tell by merely listening to a brief tune as to who composed it.

I try  not to. But when I do hear a song of mine I feel I could’ve done much better. When I recorded songs I’d rush out  of the recording.  This was a matter of great  annoyance to many of the music directors. But I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t bear to hear myself.