Happy Birthday Lata Mangeshkar & Ranbir Kapoor!

Lataji was the eldest child born to a Maratha family in 1929. Her father, Deenanath Mangeshkar was a classical singer and theatre actor, she took her first singing classes from her father. Lataji, along with her four siblings Asha Bhosha, Usha Mangeshkar, Meena Mangeshkar and Hridaynath Mangeshkar are well known in the music industry.

Lataji started her career in 1942 when her father succumbed to death. She sang few songs, but her major break through was with the hit song "Dil Mera Toda" from movie Majboor (1948) followed by another popular song "Aayega Aanewala" in Mahal (1949). She sang various songs composed by renown music directors including Anil Biswas, Shankar Jaikishan, Naushad Ali and S.D Burman. Songs such as "Aaja Re Pardesi" from Madhumati (1958), "Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya" from Mughal-e-Azam (1960), "Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh" from Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai (1960) took her straight to the top. In 1963, Lataji sang critically acclaimed "Aye Mere Watan ke Logo" in presence of the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru which is still ruling the hearts of billions of Indians. Later, she recorded several popular songs like "Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai", "Gata Rahe Mera Dil", "Piya Tose" and "Lag Jaa Gale". Her association with Laxmikant-Pyarelal also gave her some critically acclaimed songs of her career like "Hasta Hua Noorani Chehra", "Dil Wil Pyaar Wyar", "Aa Jaane Jaan" and "Bindiya Chamkegi". She also sang several playback songs for Marathi films. Her duets with Mukesh, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar added multiple hits to her credit.

Lataji has won several awards and honors like the Padma Bhushan (1969), Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1989), Padma Vibhushan (1999), Bharat Ratna (2001), along with four Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards. In 1974, her name was included in The Guinness Book of World Records for being the most recorded artist in history. The Lata Mangeshkar Award was instituted by the Government of Madhaya Pradesh in honor of Lata Mangeshkar in 1984. She was further awarded with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. 

On Lataji's birthday, we bring a small list of her chartbusters:

Handsome and charming, the heartthrob of Bollywood - we are talking about the one and only rockstar, Ranbir Kapoor. Born in 1982 in Mumbai to veteran actor-couple Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh. Junior Kapoor is the great-grandson of Prithviraj Kapoor and grandson of actor-director Raj Kapoor. He has an elder sibling named Riddhima and is cousin to actresses Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan. Kapoor did his school from Bombay Scottish School and pre-university education from HR college of Science and Commerce. Later, he relocated to New York to learn film-making at the School of Visual Arts and subsequently pursued acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

Kapoor started his career as an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali for the movie Black (2005) and later debuted with him as an actor in Saawariya (2007) opposite debutante Sonam Kapoor. Though the film failed but Kapoor was highly appreciated which led him to earning the Best Male Debut at the Filmfare Awards. Even though he had a rocky start, he managed to weave a path towards success gaining popularity in a very short period of time. Later, he did various critically acclaimed movies like Wake Up Sid (2009), Raajneeti (2010), Rockstar (2011), Barfi (2012) and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013). Kapoor was a playback singer for "Love Ki Ghanti" for his film Besharam (2013).

Junior Kapoor's upcoming projects include various films like Bombay Velvet (May 2015) directed by Anurag Kashyap co-staring Anushka Sharma, Raveena Tandon and Karan Johar. He also has Jagga Jasoos alongside Katrina Kaif, Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha opposite Deepika Padukone and Vicky Singh's Roy alongside Jacqueline Fernandes and Arjun Rampal.

We present to you a small playlist of Kapoor's popular songs

Here's wishing Lata Mangeshkar and Ranbir Kapoor a very Happy Birthday! We at BollyCurry only hope that this new year brings both the celebrities an extra share of happiness and success to their kitty.

Writer: Peehu A.

Editor(s): Nisha M. and Sonia R.

Graphics: Virina R.