Kishore Kumar (August 4, 1929 – October 13, 1987), an Indian film playback singer and actor was born in Madhya Pradesh to a Bengali family as Abhas Kumar Ganguly. He has sung in many Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali (his mother tongue), Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and Oriya. Widely acknowledged as one of the finest Indian male playback singers of all, he was also earned notable successes as a lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter.

He was introduced early to the word of cinema as his elder brother, Ashok Kumar, was a popular actor, and his brother Anup also have ventured into cinema. He was very much influenced by Kundan Lal Sehgal’s singing. He had a great respect for poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore who influenced him in many ways. On 13 October 1987—his brother Ashok’s 76th birthday—he died of a heart attack in Mumbai at 4:45 pm.

Interesting facts on Kishore Kumar:

•     SD Burman was the one who first saw Kishore’s Singing Talent. He motivated Kishore Kumar and made him sing in some of his compositions.

•     Composer Salil Chowdhury wanted him and Lata Mangeshkar to sing a duet Aake Seedhi Lagi Dil Pe. Mangeshkar, however, was not present in town though the song still had to be recorded. Kishore then came up with the idea to record the song in both his own and in contralto (attributing to a female voice). Chowdhury loved the song and used in the film.

•     As Kishore Kumar had no friends, he loved conversing with trees.

•     As he was very popular for his sense of humour, it is said that he had a signboard in the door of his flat that read ‘Beware of Kishore’.

•   During a car scene, Kumar continued to drive up to Khandala because the director forgot to say ‘cut’.

•     As he led a secluded life and hated giving interviews , he had skulls and scary decor and lighting in his room as means to drive away journalists..

He was very particular in matters of fees and refused to work until his secretary confirmed. In one incident, he appeared on the set with make-up on only one side of his face. When questioned by the director, Kishore da replied, “Aadha paisa to aadha make-up”.