‘A voice like hers will never fade’

Industry veteran and Founder of House of IP Raj Nayak has penned an ode to legendary playback singer Asha Bhosle who passed away at the age of 92 on Sunday. 

Below is the post:

The year was 2012. One I will never forget. We were working on SUR KSHETRA for Colors TV, a show we had acquired from Sahara TV. The show was originally produced by Sahara One and directed by Gajendra Singh from Saibaba Studios. It was brought to me by Suresh Mishra, who was the CEO there, and he felt that on their own they wouldn’t be able to monetise it as it was a very expensive show. Also, for the first time, a show like this was going to be simulcast on two GEC channels. At that time, we didn’t fully realise it, but it was something quite new. Hats off to Raghav Bahl, my boss at that time, who gave me the freedom to take that decision.

SUR KSHETRA had Atif Aslam and Himesh Reshammiya as captains, Ayesha Takia as the host, and the judges were Abida Parveen, Runa Laila and Asha Bhosle.

A couple of days before the press conference, Abida ji and Runa ji had come to Mumbai. I got a call from Boney Kapoor, who at that time was a director with Sahara TV, asking me if I could take care of them. So I decided to host a lunch at the JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu. All three of them came Runa ji, Abida ji and Asha Tai.

I had planned to take them to the Indian restaurant there, but I hadn’t checked and it was shut for lunch. I felt quite bad. I was thinking where to go next, but all of them said it’s okay, let’s just sit in the coffee shop. So we sat there and started chatting.

At one point, someone came and told me that Pratyusha Banerjee from Balika Vadhu wanted to come and say hello. I didn’t want to disturb my guests, so I walked across, said hello to her, and came back.

They were curious to know who I had gone to meet. When I told them it was Pratyusha from Balika Vadhu, they all got very excited. They wanted to meet her. They spoke about the show and how closely they followed it. Asha Tai said that she and Lata Mangeshkar used to watch it and even discuss it. It was nice to see that side of them.

After lunch, I didn’t really know what to do till the evening. But seeing their interest, I asked them if they would like to come to our office and meet the programming team. They immediately said yes. I called the office and told my team that I was coming back with three legends and asked them to get ready.

It turned out to be a lovely interaction. My team got to sit with them and talk about our shows, and the surprising thing was how much they already knew about our stories and characters.

Then came the day of the press conference at the Taj Lands End.

About 30 minutes before the event, we were told that the press conference could not happen. The press was already there, we were all ready, but the hotel said they couldn’t allow it because of pressure and risk from a political party. We tried everything, calls, requests, even offering police protection, but they refused. They even put security to make sure we couldn’t go.

We were really stuck.

That’s when Asha Tai called us asked us to line up behind her and said “Come, follow me. We will do the press conference.”

She just started walking, and we followed her. Security tried to stop us, but she didn’t stop. She kept moving forward. And then she said in Marathi

“Tu majhyavar haath thev kiva majhyasobat aslelya kunalahi sparsh kar, ani bagh kay hota.”

She kept waking and the security kept moving back .. That was it. And we went and did the press conference.

I still remember that moment. It showed me her strength and her courage.

That night, after everything was done, I went to her room, gave her a big hug and touched her feet.

There are many small memories I have of her.

Her granddaughter, Zanai Bhosle, studied at Dhirubhai Ambani International School where my wife taught. The kids would sometimes come home and I would do some magic tricks for them. Because of that, I think she had a soft corner for me.

She had a very good sense of humour. Almost every time we met, she would ask me about my wife, Sagari, and she was one of the very few people who always got her name right.

I remember one night around 9 pm, she called from Dubai on my wife’s phone, since she knew her well. She first complained to my wife about me replacing Pratyusha as the main lead in Balika Vadhu, and then told her to put me on the line and fired the hell out of me in her own endearing way how dare I replace Pratyusha. I had ruined her and Lata ji’s daily routine. I had to spend the next 30 minutes pacifying her and explaining what led to the situation. It wasn’t really our fault. A few weeks later, she called again to say that she liked the way the story was progressing.

She also loved cooking and would often talk about doing a show where she could cook and sing. She mentioned it to me a few times. I still feel I should have taken that forward.

A voice like hers will never fade.

A person like her is not easy to forget.

My heartfelt condolences to Zanai, Ranjai, Anuja, Anand, and the entire family. I can only imagine the emptiness this loss brings. I hope you find strength in each other and in all the love and memories she leaves behind. She will always be there with you, in every note, every smile, every moment.

Asha Tai, you will be missed.

Your voice will live on for years to come, and you will always remain in our hearts.