Legendary singer Asha Bhosle’s last rites were performed amidst an outpouring of emotions by thousands of people who witnessed the event at the Shivaji Park electric crematorium at Dadar West here on Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a floral wreath, which was laid by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis near her body. The Indian tricolor flag wrapped around her body was ceremoniously handed over to Asha Bhosle’s son Anand Bhosle, followed by a gun salute.
Later, Anand Bhosle lit the funeral pyre in the presence of the Mangeshkar family members and siblings Marathi film playback singer Usha Mangeshkar and music director Hridaynath Mangeshkar, were present during her last rites. Her grand daughter and singer Zanai Bhosle was seen crying inconsolably at her last rites.
Just before her funeral pyre was lit, singers Shaan, Sudesh Bhosle and Anup Jalota paid a musical tribute to the legendary singer who sang more than 12,000 songs in her eight-decade career which began when she was only 10 years old.
While Sudesh Bhosle crooned ‘Zindagi ek safar hai auhana’, Shaan sang ‘Pyaar ke mod pe’.
Deputy Chief Ministers Sunetra Pawar and Eknath Shinde, cabinet ministers of Maharashtra, Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawade, MNS chief Raj Thackeray and others also paid their tributes.
Film industry veterans, including Hariharan, Shaan, actor Aamir Khan, Vicky Kaushal and Padmini Kolhapure, paid their tributes to Asha Bhosle, who passed away on Sunday, April 12, at the age of 92 due to multiple organ failure following a cardiac arrest.
Her mortal remains were kept at her residence in Lower Parel from 11 am to 3 pm to allow fans and celebrities to pay their last respects. Later, the funeral procession one of India’s most popular singers started from her residence in Lower Parel to Shivaji Park in Dadar West, which is about five kilometres away.
The final journey of legendary singer Asha Bhosle drew huge crowds in Mumbai as thousands of admirers lined the streets to pay their last respects. Chants of “Asha Tai amar rahe” went up in the crowds gathered for a last glimpse of the singing star who ruled their playlists and hearts for eight decades.
Her mortal remains, carried in a white vehicle decorated with her favourite white colour and yellow flowers along with a photograph of her wearing a traditional Maharashtrian nath, were taken from her Lower Parel residence to Shivaji Park in Dadar West, where her last rites were conducted at 4 pm.
Many fans, their hands folded in prayer, were heard singing the many numbers that made Bhosle the star that she was for music lovers of all ages and through many generations.
Snatches of ‘Aaiye Meherbaan’, a song of love filmed on Madhubala, and ‘Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Pe’, romance of another hue pictured on Zeenat Aman many decades later, and many others, could be heard during her funeral procession.