RD Burman and Asha Bhosle got married in 1979. (Photo: Express Archives)

In a chat with Filmfare in 1993, Asha described her children as her life and said that she could never leave them alone, not even for her husband. “When Pancham da and I decided to get married, we mutually agreed that we would be together during the day, maybe attend parties in the evening, but at night I’d return home to my kids and he to his apartment. We’ve never spent a night together. I couldn’t. Because I’ve been both mother and father to my kids,” she said.

The arrangement was seen as unconventional, and since the two were always surrounded by yes-men, who would sometimes misinterpret things and indulge in rumour-mongering, this arrangement was misunderstood by many.

Asha didn’t want to make the mistake of marrying again

Both Asha and Pancham always maintained that it was him who pursued her to get married. In a 1993 chat with Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha, Pancham said that even before he fell for her, they were always “musically inclined to each other.” Asha said that since she was 46, and he was 40 when they got married, there was a lot of maturity in their relationship. “Our relationship was music changed into marriage. He knew what I was, and I knew who he was. Sur ka naata hai hamara (Ours is a relationship of music),” she said.

ALSO READ | ‘Humiliated’ by Bollywood, how RD Burman created 1942 A Love Story; teared up when music was called ‘bullsh*t’

When he was trying to woo her, Pancham would send her flowers everyday, but anonymously. He would also shower her with praises for her singing, but Asha was cautious, as she did not want to make the same mistake that she made at 16. “I felt flattered, but I didn’t want to make the mistake of marrying again. He was after me for years to get married. After much persuasion, he convinced me that he’d fallen in love with my voice. It fascinated him,” she once shared with PTI.

The foundation of Asha Bhosle-RD Burman’s marriage was music

The start of their relationship might not have been conventionally romantic but to these two, music was all the romance they needed as this was the “basic foundation of our marriage.” Asha and Pancham would spend hours sitting together and listening to music. Everything from Bismillah Khan, The Beatles, Shirley Bassey, Rolling Stones, Blood, Sweat & Tears would play for hours. They would sometimes spend 6-7 hours sitting in the same spot and humming the tunes of John Coltrane, Sergio Mendes, Carlos Santana and this became their “everlasting bond.”

The idea of a conventional marriage, where a man and woman dedicate their lives to each other, or are madly in love, did not apply to Asha and Pancham. They loved each other but saw each other more as companions than lovers. Their strong relationship with their music, and what they had built together in terms of their musical legacy was their foundation so when they finally got married, it wasn’t for the world. This was probably the reason that they didn’t have any wedding pictures.

Playback singer Kishore Kumar with Asha Bhosle and RD Burman. (Photo: Express archives)

No pictures from their wedding

One of Pancham’s closest friends, Badal Bhattacharya, was present for the ceremony and his wife, Mili, in a chat with Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal for the book RD Burman: The Man, The Music, said that the ceremony was intentionally low-key because they did not want to stir any controversies. They were also considerate about Pancham’s mother, Meera Dev Burman, who would have probably objected to Pancham marrying a widow who was six years older than him. In fact, Sapan Chakraborty, one of Pancham’s assistants, who was also present at the ceremony, kept clicking pictures without realising that the film roll had been removed from the camera.

Writer Sachin Bhowmik, however, argued that they never officially married, and claimed that Pancham himself told him that they never had a traditional wedding ceremony. In the same book, he was quoted saying, “From what Pancham told me, there was no marriage or anything like that. Asha had taken Pancham with her to a temple in Darjeeling one night (when he was) in a drunken state. Garlands were exchanged. There is no photo or any registration.”

RD Burman’s surgery in London, but Asha was only a visitor

Rumours such as these raised questions about their relationship and these intensified after Pancham had a heart attack in 1985, for many claimed that Asha wasn’t by his side during his health troubles. In 1989, when Pancham had a bypass surgery in London, many noted that Asha was merely a visitor, and not his companion. The cardiac surgeon, Dr Mukesh Hariawala, who performed the surgery, felt that he couldn’t see the husband-wife bond between them. “In hospitals, we can identify the bonding between the patient and his spouse; in the way they sit next to each other, in their body language, in the expression in their eyes, etc. In Asha Bhosle’s case, the bond was not visible. She was like any other visitor. There seemed to be some kind of formality in their relationship,” he told the authors.

ALSO READ | Raj Kapoor followed Nargis to Berlin after break up, offered her money ‘after exploiting’ her

Comments and observations such as these further put their relationship under the microscope and even though Pancham tried to clarify these rumours, they had taken a life of their own. In a chat with The Times of India in 1989, Pancham said that Asha had come to see him but had to leave because of her work commitments. And since he had many family members with him, he was comfortable despite her absence. “My wife, Asha Bhosle, was there initially. Unfortunately, she had to leave after a fortnight. She had commitments; she had concerts in America and the Scandinavian countries. But I have a large part of my family, from my father’s side, in London. They were with me, always by my bedside, till I boarded the aircraft home,” he said.

‘I’m not married to Asha, I’m married to her voice’

The years after Pancham’s bypass surgery were particularly difficult for him. He was going through a rough patch professionally as many filmmakers had dropped him from their films. Almost 27 of his films had flopped at the box office, and Pancham had taken this defeat personally, even though he wasn’t directly responsible for a film’s fate. Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who worked with Pancham in Parinda, and his swan song, 1942 A Love Story, felt that Pancham’s self-confidence had taken a hit, and he was feeling especially alone. “People close to him, including Asha Bhonsle, left him. He began thinking that he lacked the ability and burnt out. This was untrue, but he somehow got swayed by other people’s opinions and ended up losing his belief in his music,” he shared with Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal. Sachin Bhowmick claimed that Asha’s visits to his home had decreased, and he would feel quite lonely.

RD Burman and Asha Bhosle’s relationship puzzled many around them. (Photo: Express Archives)

In Khagesh Dev Burman’s book RD Burman: The Prince of Music, Sachin even claimed that RD and Asha’s marriage was over before he died in 1994. “A few days before his death, Pancham told me in confidence that their married life had come to an end. At that agonising period and age when a companion is absolutely needed, Pancham was all alone,” he claimed. When he asked Pancham why he married Asha, Pancham told him, “I’m not married to Asha, I’m married to her voice’.”

‘You’ve lost a music director, I lost my husband’

Pancham and Asha were very respectful towards each other and the world might have interpreted their relationship differently, they were the only ones who knew what they meant to each other. They might have had their ups and downs, like any relationship, but they never spoke badly about each other in public. And even with their friends and colleagues, Pancham and Asha did not air their dirty laundry.

In January 1994, Pancham passed away at the crack of dawn after suffering two heart attacks. The world lost a musician, but Asha lost her companion. As per Ajitabh Menon, Asha refused to enter the room where his mortal remains lay. “Main uss kamre mein nahi jaungi. Main use mara hua nahin dekh sakti. Main use zinda dekhna chahti hoon (I will not go inside that room. I can’t see him dead. I want to see him alive),” she said.

ALSO READ | Rajesh Khanna was in a ‘pathetic’ state after his superstar era, stood in line for a public toilet for a hit film: ‘Naam kharab ho gaya’

In a video that was recorded shortly after Pancham’s death, Asha was seen wearing a white saree. In a dishevelled state, she gathered the courage to say a few words. “You have lost a music director, but I have lost my husband,” she said and added that she would always be proud of him. She broke down and finally said, “There is no one to sing ‘Monica’ with me anymore.” The relationship that started because of music left the same everlasting memories for her.

‘More than my husband, he was my friend’

From Pancham’s passing in 1994 to Asha’s death in 2026, she often spoke about him and recalled the amazing times they spent at the studio while recording some of the best songs in the history of Hindi film music. “More than my husband, he was my friend. Our relationship was based on our music, and that’s how it always remained,” she once told Atika Farooqui.

The world might have been suspicious of a relationship that didn’t check the boxes they expected it to check, but for Pancham and Asha, their unique, unconventional relationship was everything they wanted.