The talent of Kishore Kumar can be gauged from the fact that he was not just known for his singing but is also remembered as an actor, lyricist, composer, producer, director and scriptwriter. The master of all trades could also sing in several languages including Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam, Oriya and Urdu.
The eight-time Filmfare Award winner rose above awards and now has an award on his name ‘Kishore Kumar Award’ commemorated by the Madhya Pradesh government.
Kishore Kumar was the most successful singers who became the voice of several superstars from Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra and many more. But his personal life was not a smooth ride.
Kishore Kumar married four times but was still a loner in his personal life. He married singer-actress Ruma Ghosh in 1950 but got divorced about eight years later in 1958. Even before the two could officially separate, he married Madhubala against his parents wish. The marriage did not work as Madhubala was on death bed due to her heart ailment and had to move out of his house due to rising family pressure. After Madhubala passed away in 1969, he married Yogeeta Bali in 1976 but got divorced in 1978. He then tied the knot with Leena Chandavarkar in 1980 which lasted till his death.
Kishore Kumar had confessed that he did not have any friends to count on and thus he called his trees his closest buddies. Rajesh Khanna and Rahul Dev Burman were considered to be his closest pals for a long time.
Kishore Kumar stopped singing for Mithun Chakraborty for some time as his third wife Yogeeta Bali divorced him after about three years of marriage to marry Chakraborty in 1979. However, the singer could not avoid singing for Mithun Chakraborty for long and lent his voice for his film Surakkhsha (1979) and later on for several of his hit films – Disco Dancer, Faraib (1983) and Waqt Ki Awaz (1988).
As fate would have it, he recorded his last song ‘Guru Guru’ with Asha Bhosle for Mithun’s film Waqt Ki Aawaz, a day before his death on his brother, Ashok Kumar’s birthday.
