Asha Bhosle, the Indian singer whose voice helped define Bollywood music through the 1970s and 1980s, has died aged 92, according to her family.
Bhosle was one of the most versatile and celebrated voices in Indian popular music. Over a career that spanned decades, she became widely recognised for the range and reach of her singing, and for the central role she played in the sound of Bollywood’s most successful era.
Her family said the singer had been admitted to hospital in Mumbai after suffering from “extreme exhaustion” and a chest infection. No further details were included in the report.
Bhosle was also a two-time Grammy nominee, a distinction that reflected her international recognition as well as her enduring influence in Indian music.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, her voice became closely associated with Bollywood’s biggest productions and most familiar songs. Her death marks the loss of one of the key figures in Indian playback singing, and one of the best-known voices in the country’s cultural history.
