Abhas Kumar Ganguly, better known as Kishore Kumar, popped into the world in Khandwa, which sits in today’s Madhya Pradesh. His dad Kunjilal worked as a lawyer, while his mom Gouri Devi came from a well-off background. Kishore was the baby of the Ganguly clan, with siblings Ashok Kumar (the OG film star), Sati, and Anoop Kumar ahead of him. The family tree is honestly a maze—Sati married Sashadhar Mukherjee, which links Kishore to a whole Bollywood dynasty: Joy Mukherjee, Deb Mukherjee, even Rani Mukerji if you keep tracing the branches. Ashok became a household name in movies, but Kishore, who started out as Abhas, just wanted to sing and mess around with impressions of legends like K.L. Saigal. Anoop pushed him to stop copying and find his own sound, and thank god he did. One day S.D. Burman caught Kishore singing, got hooked, and roped him into playback singing. When S.D. passed, his son R.D. Burman became Kishore’s biggest supporter in the industry. The dude was a Leo, loved his trees (literally talked to them), and slapped a "Mental Hospital" sign outside his house for laughs. Kishore's stubborn streak ran deep—he got banned from government radio during the Emergency for refusing to sing praises of the ruling party. He was tight with Rajesh Khanna and belted out songs for him in 91 films, which is just wild. Kishore’s love life? Tabloid gold. He married big names like Madhubala, Yogita Bali, and Leena Chandavarkar—each story messier than the last. He launched his son Amit Kumar’s singing career and, true to form, kept Bollywood guessing till his last breath.
Back in the mid-80s, Kishore Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan had a bit of a falling out. Kishore was supposed to sing for Amitabh, but when Amitabh turned down a movie Kishore was producing, Kishore basically said, “Nope, not singing for you anymore.” That was it—total freeze-out. And honestly? Things didn’t go so great for Amitabh after that. His career kind of nosedived for a while. It was a rough stretch, nothing he did really clicked, and everyone wondered if the magic was just... gone. Fast forward to 2000, and suddenly—boom—he’s back in the spotlight as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati, totally reinventing himself. People loved him all over again, but those years in between? Yeah, not exactly the golden era for Big B. Just goes to show, even legends hit rough patches.
I’ll never forget when Lata actually agreed to do those London stage shows with me—man, I didn’t expect that. She’s a stickler for rehearsals, you know? Me, I like to just go with the flow, so I was a bit nervous about keeping up. We were supposed to sing five duets together: “Chai Pe Bulaya Hai,” “Gata Rahe Mera Dil,” “Jai Jai Shiv Shankar,” “Accha To Hum Chalte Hain,” and “Kora Kagaz Tha Yeh Man Mera.” When it was time to hit the stage, we couldn’t even decide who should start! I figured, she’s my senior, let her go first, but she spun it around and introduced me instead—after laying on the compliments, of course, and then reminding everyone I’m older than her by a month and 24 days. The first Wembley show got weird—organizers hyped up “Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain I Love You,” but Lata wouldn’t sing it because of the word “idiot.” Same thing with “Pag Ghungroo”—she said no way, it insulted Meerabai. Instead, she insisted I sing a bhajan. I blanked, but finally pulled out “Hari Naam Ka Pyaala”—and the audience went wild.
August 4, 1929
5′ 8½″ (1.74 m)
Konidela Ram Charan
Khandwa, Central Provinces, British India
Yes, Amit Kumar
Kunjalal Ganguly and Surekha
95 years old