"Since I was a child, I had always wanted to meet Saigal sahib. When I was very young I would say: When I grow up, I'll marry Saigal. Jokingly my father would reply: By that time he will be an old man. I would say: Never mind I'll still marry him," Lata says in the book Lata Mangeshkar: In Her Own Voice written by Nasreen Munni Kabir and published by Niyogi Books.
The book has a series of fascinating conversations between Lata and London-based documentary author-filmmaker Kabir and reveals the person behind the voice that has provided the soundtrack for the lives of billions.
But Lata never met Saigal. "I do regret that I never managed to meet Saigal sahib. Thanks to his brother Mahendra Saigal, I met Saigal sahibs wife Asha Raniji and his children. His son gave me a ring that belonged to Saigal sahib," the singer, who has sung over 50,000 songs in her career spanning over six decades, recalls.
According to her, film music wasn't hugely appreciated at home.
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"Since I was a child, I had always wanted to meet Saigal sahib. When I was very young I would say: When I grow up, I'll marry Saigal. Jokingly my father would reply: By that time he will be an old man. I would say: Never mind I'll still marry him," Lata says in the book Lata Mangeshkar: In Her Own Voice written by Nasreen Munni Kabir and published by Niyogi Books.
