3 min readMumbaiJul 4, 2026 02:01 PM IST
The world is still grieving the loss of Asha Bhosle, who passed away earlier this year. Her contribution to Indian music will be remembered for generations to come. Recently, her sister, Usha Mangeshkar, recalled the first time she got the opportunity to sing a duet with Asha. It also marked their first meeting after Asha had eloped with her husband, Ganpatrao Bhosle, when she was just 16 years old. Ganpatrao was nearly 20 years older than her.
‘Asha Bhosle had just become a mother’
Recalling how emotional it was to see Asha again after nearly a decade, Usha told Filmfare, “It was the first time I was seeing her after marriage. She had just become a mother to Hemant. She left home when she was around 14-15. And now, after all those years, that was the first time I saw her again.”
She added that she was stunned by how much Asha had changed. “Before that, I only remembered her as a little tomboy, wearing pants and shirts, a waistcoat, just seven or eight years old, riding a bicycle, roaming around, getting into fights. That’s how I had always seen her. So I imagined she’d still be the same, laughing, joking, teasing everyone, always ready to playfully chase and hit people. But when I saw her, I just kept staring. She had a huge tikka on her forehead. Her hair was tied up, she was wearing a plain white sari. She had gold bangles on her hands and a wristwatch. And she looked at me.”
Usha also recalled that Asha immediately scolded her over her appearance. “She asked me why my hair was such a mess and whether I didn’t have any hairpins. I wasn’t wearing any, and I just kept looking at her. Then she handed me a hairpin and said, ‘Wear this. Come with your hair properly pinned.’” Reflecting on how much her sister had changed, Usha added, “The way she spoke had changed so much. The way she used to speak then and the way she spoke now, it was completely different. A huge difference.”
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‘Asha Bhosle called up mother saying I’m unwell’
She further revealed that Asha’s relationship with the family had become strained after she eloped, but things gradually improved following the birth of her son, Hemant. “A lot had happened in between. She had a son, and my mother was very happy because he was her first grandson. And a few days later she called up my mother saying, ‘I’m ill. Please come.’ So I went with my mother. After that, all of us started coming and going together again.”
Asha’s decision to elope had deeply upset her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, who, as the eldest sibling, did not approve of the marriage. Speaking to Kavita Chhibber in a 2003 interview, Asha had recalled, “Lata didi did not speak to me for a long time. She disapproved of the alliance.”
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Asha and Ganpatrao Bhosle separated in 1960. He passed away in 1966. In 1980, Asha married music composer RD Burman, and they stayed married until his death in 1994.
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