Lata Mangeshkar had an affair with Bhupen: Hazarika’s estranged wife

Zeenews Bureau

Mumbai: In what sounds like a startling statement, late legendary musician-filmmaker Bhupen Hazarika’s wife has for the first time spoken about her husband’s “affair” with melody queen Lata Mangeshkar. Priyamvada Patel, estranged wife of Hazarika, who was in Assam to attend his first death anniversary revealed about the maestro’s relationship with Mangeshkar while giving an interview to an Assamese channel recently. Her allegation has not only irked the Mangeshkars but has also offended Kalpana Lajmi, Hararika’s companion for over 40 years. Priyamvada held Lata’s equation with Hazarika as one of the reasons why she chose to get separated from her husband in 1963 after 13 years of marriage. Patel said that Lata used to visit their Kolkata residence whenever she used to be in the city. a“She used to come and they used to be together the whole night in one of the three bedrooms. She was crazy about him. He told me one day, ‘Look Priyam, in India, if a musician wants to come up, his songs have to be sung by Lata Mangeshkar’,” DNA quoted Priyamvada as saying. “Later, when I asked him why he should be with a woman in the room the whole night, he said ‘ketiaba koribo lage’ (sometimes you have to do it). Once, musicians Kalyanji-Anandji were in one of the rooms. Kalyanji told me in Gujarati, ‘Behen, tame sui jao (sister you go to sleep), he won’t come up’,” Patel reportedly said. Apparently many people in Assam had known about the presence of a ‘big star from Bombay’ in Hazarika’s life. But none had dared to speak about her. Hazarika had written about the woman in his life in his autobiography ‘Moi Eti Jajabor’ (I am a Nomad). But he hadn’t mentioned Lata’s name. However, he had mentioned about an instance that had left Priyamvada teary eyed and that was when she said, “She (the big star from Bombay) said she loves you (Hazarika) more than your parents and I do.”