• Prime Minister Narendra Modi was honoured with the first Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar award on April 24.

• Lata Mangeshkar passed away in Mumbai on February 6. She was 92. 

• Modi received the award on April 24, which marked the 80th death anniversary of Master Deenanath Mangeshkar, the singing legend’s father.

• The Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Puraskar will be given every year to an individual who has made a path-breaking, spectacular and exemplary contribution to the nation, its people and society, according to the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Smruti Pratishthan Charitable Trust, which has instituted the award.

Nightingale of India

• Lata Mangeshkar was born on September 28, 1929, to a Marathi and Konkani musician Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar. Originally named Hema, she was the eldest of five siblings — Asha Bhosle, Meena Khadikar, Usha Mangeshkar and Hridaynath. Her father Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar was a classical singer and theatre actor.

• Lata Mangeshkar recorded her first playback song for a Marathi film, ‘Kiti Hasaal’, at the age of 13, and even acted in a Marathi film, ‘Pahili Mangalagaur’ in the year 1942. In 1946, she recorded her first Hindi film playback song for ‘Aap Ki Seva Mein’, directed by Vasant Jogalekar.

• In 1972, Lata Mangeshkar won the first National Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the film ‘Parichay’. 

• Over the years, the veteran singer won numerous national and international awards. In 1984, the government of Madhya Pradesh instituted the Lata Mangeshkar Award. The government of Maharashtra also instituted a Lata Mangeshkar Award in 1992 to promote singing talent.

• Mangeshkar was popularly known as “Nightingale of India” and “Melody Queen”.

• She had a prodigious almost eight-decade career in which she sang an estimated 25,000 songs in as many as 36 Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Kannada, and across classical and other genres.

Awards and honours:

• 2001 - Bharat Ratna

• 1999 - Padma Vibhushan

• 1969 - Padma Bhushan

• 1989 - Dadasaheb Phalke Award

• 1972, 1974, 1990- National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer

• 2009 - France's highest civilian award, the Insignia of ‘Officier de la Legion d’Honneur’ (Officer of the Legion of Honour).

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