Blast From The Past: When Sanjay Leela Bhansali dared To Replace Asha Bhosle

This is a story that  nobody knows.And  it involves  the  formidable singing diva Asha Bhosle. A synonym  for  talent and perfection  Ashaji’s songs are the embodiment  of  perfection.

In  her entire career Asha Bhosle has been replaced only one. And it is the perfectionist Sanjay Leela Bhansali who decided  to scrap her voice after recording. The film  was   the  epic blockbuster  Devdas.The song was  the  chartbuster  Maar daala. It  was  originally recorded in  Asha Bhosle’s  voice.

But something  was  amiss…Or so  the  perfectionist filmmaker thought. He  wanted  it re-recorded.Composer  Ismail Durbar was aghast, “How can you ask THE  Asha Bhosle  to do the song again? No one tells her  to  do something  like that,” Durbar couldn’t  believe what Bhansali  intended  to do.

Bhansali  had a  better  idea. Instead of asking  He  decided to scrap  the  ditty altogether and  do it all over again in Kavita Krishnamoorthy’s  voice. That’s how we  finally heard Maar dala  in  Kavita and  not Asha Bhosle’s song.

Everyone in the Devdas team  expected  all hell to break lose once  the song  was  released. To her  credit, Ashaji didn’t create  any  fuss in what must have been  the most unexpected shock  of her career. In fact for  a long time after Devdas was released the  dulcet diva continued  to  tease  Bhansali about how her  voice  was  not good enough  for him.