Usha Uthup is so full of life that it is difficult to imagine her battling fears. But she is stalked by fear, she says - of water, darkness and death.

"I feel scared about death all the time, but not of ageing. I am a positive person but I find death terrible. Life is so beautiful, but the only truth in life is death. So it's best to keep yourself occupied always," the 67-year-young Usha Uthup says.

She is scared of flights, too. Before boarding a plane, she constantly checks how the weather will be along the flight path. Even during this interview, she keeps googling to see how the weather will remain along a 90-minute flight to Hyderabad she is to take the following day.

"I have been flying for ages. Still, I have flight frights. I don't know how to swim since I am afraid of water. I am also scared of darkness," she emphasises.

She settles herself comfortably in a leather couch in her studio. The thick kohl lining her eyes, the big black bindi and maroon lipstick, and her glowing face with few wrinkles belie her age. The light green and cream sari she is wearing adds to her evergreen appeal.

As we begin our conversation - which she strictly limits to 40 minutes because of back-to-back meetings and recordings - she talks about Sister Nirmala's death, and how it has brought an emotional void in her life. Uthup, who was very close to Mother Teresa, has had a long relationship with the Missionaries of Charity, and especially with Sister Nirmala, who headed it after the death of the Nobel Laureate.

"She facilitated my meeting with the Pope when I was invited to the Vatican for Mother's beatification. I used to go and talk to her when I was happy, sad or excited about any project and her last words would always be 'move on'," she reminisces.

Well, Uthup has been moving on - grabbing Bollywood eyeballs from the time she did a deep la-la-la for Dum Maro Dum in 1971 to a role that she has accepted in Farhan Akhtar's Rock On!! 2. "I am playing a character called Sharon or Sarah, who is a retired Anglo-Indian pop star mentoring and inspiring a band from Shillong," she says, adding that her looks and costumes for the film will be designed by Aki Narula.

"She's a person who does not want to retire from music but has taken on another role in music itself. I am mentally preparing myself for it and once the script is more defined I will get into the character more," she adds.

But unlike the role she's set to play, Uthup has no plans to retire from music. "I recorded for Vishal Bhardwaj's Drishyam a week ago and am hoping that something will come my way," she says. "I never sell myself. If I had done that, I am sure I would have got much more."

If someone is keen to have her sing, she says, they will always wait for her. "But it's a fast moving industry. If your dates don't match, and if they are not 100 per cent sure they want my type of voice, they will fill the gap with someone else. If they want only me, they will wait."

Unlike many others, she bears no grudge against voice improving software or the new generation of singers which relies heavily on them. On the contrary, she sees promise in them. Shreya Ghosal, Sunidhi Chauhan and Arijit Singh are among her favourites.

Despite the cut-throat competition, Uthup - who first caught the arc lights as one of the four singing Sami sisters - has managed to be in this industry for 45 long years. From her days of crooning in restaurants to singing Darling in Priyanka Chopra's Saat Khoon Maaf, she has had a long innings.

But she wonders why the musical talent of Tollywood has not gone national. "We have some amazing composers such as Raja Narayan Deb, Indradeep Dasgupta, Joy Sarkar, but I am not quite sure what's leading to the stalemate. I guess the biggest problem is that budgets are never okay. The marketing of music is not that aggressive either," she reasons.

To prove her point, she suddenly breaks into one of her songs, Care of Kolkata, which she believes is her best on the City of Joy so far. "Nobody cares to know that the lyrics were written by director Srijit Mukherji. He also wrote my Tsunami and Aila songs. He is too good and should write more songs."

Uthup has come up with the Three Generations concert, comprising her daughter Anjali and granddaughter Ayesha. She is inundated with calls, asking for the concerts to be staged.

"Ayesha is only 15 and can only sing during her holidays or weekends if they don't clash with her studies. She is extremely talented and getting groomed as a singer," says the proud granny. The trio has already held concerts in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai and London.

With such busy schedules, it's not surprising that a typical working day for her starts at 3.30am. She has to devote time to her get-up - bindis, gajras, sari and bangles. "I can't even go to the airport without a bindi or bangles. Security persons and fans point out that my bindi is missing," she smiles.

On those rare days that she is not working, she loves to cook for her husband and son. "I have some 18 recipes given to me by my aunt, all of them are non-vegetarian, though I am a complete vegetarian. They love the beef steak and Kerala style prawns that I cook," she chuckles.

Any regrets? "I wanted to learn music. But then I wouldn't have been able to sing Ramba Ho or Naakabandi or Tagore songs the way I do now. But it would have been amazing if I had learnt notation readings," she replies.

Her secretary reminds us that it is well past our designated 40 minutes and Uthup needs to go for a recording. As she gets up, she says, "Time has been kind to me. If you make time your friend, you don't have to fight with it. Time flies because so many people are trying to kill it. Run along with time."

She has been doing that. And possibly that's why Uthup is timeless.