Remembering Singer & Actress Asha Lata Biswas 1917-1992

Yesteryear Singer & Actress turned Film Producer Asha Lata Biswas nee Mehrunnisa Bhagat was born on October 17, 1917 at Bhuj and died on 26 May 1992.
A Kutchi Khoja Muslim by birth & a polyglot, she was the First Wife of Anil Biswas, the Music Director and sister of Film Maker S Bhagat.
Ashalata started her career in the year 1935 at the tender age of 18 with the Film ‘Azadi’ (1935). During that time she was also acting in ‘Manmohan’, which was released in 1936 where Anil Biswas was assisting Ashok Ghosh, the MD of the Movie. Love blossomed between them and they got married. She & Anil Da had three sons and one daughter (Shikha Vohra). Ashalata was very talented and acted in a Gujarathi & a Marathi Movie and sang about 20 songs in Movies.
In the late 1940s, Asha Lata decided to give up her acting career to devote more time with her children. She turned into Film Production and they set up the Production House called Variety Pictures which produced 5 Films ‘Laadli’ (1949), ‘Lajawaab’ (1950), ‘Badi Bahu’ (1951), ‘Hamdard’ (1953), and ‘Mehmaan’(1953). It was Asha Lata who gave a break to Ramanand Sagar as a Director in Mehman (1953). In 1954 they produced one more film, ‘Baazooband’ (1954), but by 1949 trouble started brewing between the two and when they got separated in 1954, the Music for Bazooband was composed by Mohammed Shafi.
The main reason for the falling out between the Asha Lata and Anil Da was due to the serious affair between Anil Da and the singer Meena Kapoor. The extent of seriousness was such that Anil Da left his home and he and Meena Kapoor started living together. While some sources mention that Anil Da and Asha Lata were divorced and that Anil Da married Meena Kapoor, some mention they were never legally divorced and that Anil Da and Meena Kapoor were never legally married. It is believed that till 1980s, in spite of best efforts by Anil Da to give a legal entity to his relationship with Meena Kapoor, he was never able to legally get a divorce from Asha Lata.
In all Asha Lata worked in 27 Films with her last film being Main Abla Nahin (1949) till her comeback in 1965 once again, in the role of Kishore Kumar’s mother in the Film ‘Shriman Funtoosh’ (1965) produced under the banner of SB Productions, a Film Production Company owned by her brother S Bhagat. In 1968, she also appeared in a character role in the Gujarati film ‘Maare Jaavun Pele Paar’. During her career she worked with top people like Prithviraj Kapoor, Chandramohan, Kumar, Master Vinayak, Pahadi Sanyal, E.Bilimoria,Jairaj etc.to name a few.
In spite of her emotional setback and financial problems. Asha Lata brought up her children very well and her granddaughter Paromita Vohra (daughter of Shika Vohra) is an Indian Filmmaker and Writer.
Amar-Uptal (Biswas) duo team is Music composers of hit films such as Shahenshah (1988), Main Azaad Hoon and Aaja Meri Jaan (1993)
Asha Lata breathed her last on 26 May 1992 at Tata Hospital fighting Cancer.