Hyderabad
Nightingale of India Lata Mangeshkar breathed her last on Monday. The legendary singer is associated with the city. She first came to the city for a concert in 1962. In 1975, Lata's father Deenanath Mangeshkar attended the 33rd death anniversary and memorial service at the Venkatesh Theater in the city. Kalavedika founders and filmmaker RV Ramanamurthy produced the Hindi film 'Shola Aur Shabnam'. Lataji sang songs for the film.
Deenanath, a well-known Maratha performer, was introduced to the city's theater of the 1940s. He has some fans in the city. Thus, along with Ramana Murthy, local theater personalities used to organize the annual Lata Mangeshkar's father's memorial service. The meetings were attended by film and political celebrities. In his memory, a street in Koti Bank Street was named after Deenanath in the 1970s. Currently, you can see Deenanath Gully to the left of Citibank.
Hyderabad hosted a Lata Mangeshkar Music Festival in 2002 under the title 'Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai'. Lata Didi sang at the concert as part of a fundraiser for the Deenanath Mangeshkar Memorial Hospital Research Center in Pune. Later in the 1990s, SP Balasubramanian invited her as the chief guest for the unveiling of the Ghantashala statue at the Nampally Lalitha Kala Thoranam premises. The program began with Lataji singing the prayer song.
Lata Mangeshkar also composed the Annamayya Sanskrit Sankeerthanas 'Swara Latharchana' album in 2010 at the Tirumala Tirupati Temple. Singers like Surekhamoorthy sang the chorus for the songs in it. She was felicitated on January 31 of the same year at the Shilpakala Vedhika in the presence of the then Chief Minister Rosaiah, Akkineni Nageswara Rao. and was awarded the ‘Kala Saraswati’ Award.
Lata Didi also spoke high about Charminar in the city. "My father had a necklace. It contained Charminar embossed on the beads. That necklace was given as a gift to my mother. I know Charminar since then. The bangles available there are very popular. I myself can not go and buy, but because people will recognize and mod me. All the women buy bangles there," she said in an interview.