Kishore Kumar

Kishore Kumar wore many hats over his storied career in Bollywood: actor, producer, lyricist, composer. But what he’s most remembered for is his versatile, richly hued voice, which he lent to some of the most iconic Indian film songs of the 20th century. A self-taught singer, Kumar’s early work—singing mostly for himself in his acting roles and, intermittently, for Dev Anand—imitated the nasal twang of his idol K. L. Saigal. But over time, he developed a unique, full-throated singing style that incorporated the yodelling of country icons Jimmie Rodgers and Tex Morton. In comparison to his Hindustani classical-indebted peers, Kumar’s voice had a youthful vitality, which he deployed to great effect on songs like “Jeevan Ke Safar Mein Raahi” (1951) and the playful “Ek Ladki Bheegi Bhagi Si” (1958). He had a string of hits in the 1950s and 1960s, but it was his singing on the 1969 super-hit film Aradhana—with music composed by S.D. Burman, one of Kumar’s biggest champions—that catapulted him to Bollywood music royalty. He overtook Mohammed Rafi as the country’s most popular playback singer, a title he held onto for almost two decades till his death in 1987. Kumar and composer R.D. Burman formed a formidable team, dominating the Indian film music scene with ebullient, jaunty love songs (“Yeh Sham Mastani”, “Ye Jawani Hai Diwani”), soulful ballads (“Aaj Kahin Na Ja”, “Bahut Door Mujhe Chale Jana Hai”) and tunes dripping with pathos (“Hume Aur Jeene Ki Chahat Na Hoti”). His voice helped define the careers of many Bollywood superstars, including Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Jeetendra and Amitabh Bachchan. One of Bollywood’s most endearing mavericks—he famously butted heads with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Indian Emergency, leading to a temporary unofficial ban from state radio channels—Kumar’s legacy lives on in the generations of younger singers he’s inspired and the evergreen popularity of his songs.