Legendary singer Asha Bhosle to be honored with prestigious Maharashtra Bhushan award

Mumbai, March 26: Maharashtra government is going to conferring legendary singer and melody queen Asha Bhosle with the prestigious Maharashtra Bhushan award. The award committee meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took the decision and selected Bhosle for the year 2020.

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Cultural Affairs Minister Amit Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of State Rajendra Patil-Yadravkar, and other top officials.

Reacting to the announcement, Asha Bhosle tweeted, "My heartfelt gratitude to the people of Maharashtra for conferring upon me the highest level of honor the state can award to an individual - the Maharashtra Bhushan Award. Eternally grateful. Jai Hind. Jai Maharashtra."'

Maharashtra Bhushan Award is the highest and most prestigious award presented annually by the government of Maharashtra. It was initially conferred every year in the fields of Literature, Art, Sport, and Science. It was started in 1996 - late writer Purushottam Laxman Deshpande was the first recipient of the honor. Asha Bhosle's sister, singing legend Lata Mangeshkar has conferred the Maharashtra Bhushan Award just the next year in 1997.

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Asha Bhosle was born on September 8 1933 in the Goan hamlet of the Sangli. Asha Bhosle stated that she had sung over 12,000 songs, for over 1000 films. Apart from Hindi, she has sung in over 20 Indian and foreign languages. The Government of India honoured her with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan. She has also won the National Award twice for 'Umrao Jaan' (1981) and 'Ijaazat' (1986).