There was a time when no Durga Puja in Bengal felt complete without the voices of Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar on loudspeakers. Their songs were woven into the festive soundscape of Puja releases.
“If you went pandal-hopping in, say, 1977, there would be Lataji’s Aj noy gun gun, composed by Baba (Salil Chowdhury), playing in one pandal and Ashaji’s Kine de reshmi churi, under R.D. Burman’s baton, playing at another — such was the wealth of music in that era,” recalls Antara Chowdhury. “RD-Asha was a jooti (pairing), just as Salil-Lata was.”
Planning started months in advance. “Music companies would ask a composer to collaborate with a specific artist. I suppose R.D. Burman would receive such proposals for Ashaji, just as Baba would be asked to compose for Lataji or Hemanta kaku (Hemanta Mukherjee),” she says.
For the industry, Puja was an opportune season. Amal Banerjee, who worked with The Gramophone Company of India from 1979 to 2018, remembers the craze. “We brought out Sharad Arghya, a compilation of lyrics of our Puja releases, for which dealers paid in advance. Customers would queue up at our Esplanade outlet, and the line would stretch up to Hindusthan Building. The first lot of discs went to Akashvani Bhavan and retailers to play. We also sponsored a radio programme called Sharad Arghya to publicise the new songs,” says the 72-year-old.
Banerjee traces Bhosle’s first Puja release to a 78rpm disc in 1957, featuring Akashe aj ronger khela and Nach mayuri nach, composed by Sudhin Dasgupta. This was followed by releases in 1959 (with Manna Dey as composer), 1961 and 1962 (under Binod Chattopadhyay), 1963 (Nachiketa Ghosh) and 1967 (again Manna Dey). “But it was only when she teamed up with R.D. Burman that the collaboration minted gold for the company,” he says.
Their first Puja release together, Jete dao amay deko na, came in 1969. It was followed by Sandhyabelay tumi ami (1971), Jabo ki jabo na (1974), Moyna bolo tumi (1976), and, more regularly in the 1980s, Ashbo ar ek din (1980), Machher knata (1982) and Kine de reshmi churi (1984), among others.
“RD-Asha’s Puja releases became our top draw in the 1980s, followed by Manna Dey’s, overtaking Salil-Lata,” Banerjee says.
Bhosle’s last Puja song came as recently as in 2018 — a single titled Pujoy Asha, released by Asha Audio.