Her career as a playback singer started with a Marathi film Kiti Hassal, in 1942, but the song was edited out. She was introduced by the music director, Ghulam Haider, and resumed her career in 1947 with her first song in the Hindi film ‘Aap Ke Seva Main”. Her breakthrough song “ Dil Mera Toda” in the Hindi film “Majboor” became hit in 1948. In 1949, she lent her voice for four films that were runaway hits, and from then on Lata wave swept the film industry.

When she entered her career, heavier voices like Noorjehan, Shamshad Begum and Zohrabai Ambewali ruled the film industry. However, her high-pitched voice rendered obsolete the heavy bass nasal voices of the day, and only Geeta Datt and Shamshad Begum, to a certain extent, could survive the Lata onslaught.

Her sister Asha Bhosle too came up in the late 50s, and the two sisters became the queens of the Indian playback singing right through the 90s. Lata's Royal Albert Hall concert in London paved the way for other shows. From 80s Lata cut down her workload to concentrate on her shows abroad. She sings infrequently now, however, and even today the songs of the biggest hit movies like “ Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun (1994)”, Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), “Machis (1997)” and “ Dil Se ( 1998) are sung by her.

Lata Mangeshkar was born on September 28, 1929 at Indore, Madhyapradesh. Her paternal ancestors belonged to the priestly class of Karthandi Brahmins hailing from a small hamlet, Mangeshi, in Goa. The community fought fiercely against Portuguese Colonizers to maintain the dignity and sanctity of the temples.

Lata started studying music from her father Master Dinanath Mangeshkar. Dinanath Mangeshkar was working as actor-cum-singer with a touring theatrical company known as Kirloskar Sangeet Mandali before he started his own, Balwant Sangeet Mandali. As a child, she was recognized as a gifted artist, and she started her classical singing lessons from the age 5. She could master the vocal exercises effortlessly on first pass. In her childhood, she was very much fascinated by the voice and singing style of the renowned singer, Kundan Lal Sehgal. Another singer who had tremendously impressed her in the beginning and who ultimately became her close friend was Noor Jehan. Unfortunately, for young Lata, her father passed away when she barely reached adolescence. Due to the family’s economic problems, she took to acting in films. She acted in about eight Hindi and Marathi films.

Lata Mangeshkar received her education in classical music from an early age. The family in which Lata was born provided her all the propitious environs to turn a singer. She was groomed to be one right from the beginning. She learnt the classical music first from her father and then from Ustad Amaan Khan Bhendibazarwale. Thereafter, she also became the pupil of Ustad Amanat Khan Devaswale. For some time Pandit Tulsidas Sharma, who was a pupil of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali, also trained her.

In her childhood, she was very much fascinated by the voice and singing style of the renowned singer, Kundan Lal Sehgal. Another singer who had tremendously impressed her in the beginning and who ultimately became her close friend was Noor Jehan. Lata's initial style of singing was reminiscent of Noorjehan but she soon got over that to evolve her own distinguished style. With her search for perfection, she improved her Urdu language by hiring a tutor.

Her phenomenal success made Lata the most powerful woman in the Film Industry. In that decades-long reign, her voice has inspired patriot and lover alike. It has fanned the gentle zephyrs of a first love, fanned the fires of passionate romance, throbbed with the pain of heartbreak, celebrated the seasons, and, in time, come to epitomise the very emotions it has celebrated. Now, the dulcet-voiced Lata turns 70.

Besides her hits, Lata also won critical acclaim for her rendition of maestro Pandit Ravi Shanker's tunes in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anuradha. Then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was famously moved by Lata's rendition of the non-film patriotic number Aye mere watan ke logon, and she was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1969. As per an estimate, she has sung more than twenty-five thousand songs and in this regard, her name has figured in the Guinness Book of World Record. Thousands of her songs are labelled as the masterpieces in the field of Music. Three Indian Universities viz. Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Khairagadh Music University and Hyderabad University have conferred on heard the honorary degrees of Doctor of Literature. The title of Aasthan Vidwaan conferred on her by the world famous Balaji Mandir Trust of Karnaatka.

The Government of Madya Pradesh instituted a national level music award, in 1984, in recognition of Lata's extraordinary talent and her services to the field of music. The Lata Mangeshkar Award, consists of a certificate of merit and a cash award of Rs. One Lac.

Lata was a principled lady with self-respect. She never made any compromises. With her squeaky clean image, Lata was steadfast about choosing the songs she wanted to sing. If she sang the rare cabaret number like Aa jaane jaan, it was more to explore the limits of her versatility. Further, she dared to disagree with giants like Raj Kapoor, Mohammed Rafi and S. D. Burman. For a while, they did not record with Lata. That did not affect Lata's career at all. Fortunately for film music, they soon made up with Lata.

Lata is a passionate lover of sports particularly of Cricket, Football and Tennis. She has a keen interest in photography. Her zeal in this particular field is so intense that she has mastered all the necessary skills associated with photography and now, her expertise in it is as good as a professional photographer. Lata is an enthusiastic cook. She likes to eat delicious food and for that she's acquired the proficiency of a good cook herself. A lesser-known facet of Lata's personality is her acting talent. For a decade i.e. between 1942 and 1952 she acted in some Marathi as well as Hindi films.