Indians including the film fraternity on Sunday remembered Late Kishore Kumar, one of the finest actors and singers of the Indian film industry on his 84th birthday.

This celebrated late singer not only won hearts while being alive but still continues to mesmerise all music lovers.

His melodies are cherished by the young as well as oldies even today.

Kumar's inimitable style and screen presence continues to hold the audience glued to the screen and laugh aloud even after his demise.

Born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly, in the year 1929, this legendary singer holds the record of winning maximum number of Filmfare Awards in the category of Best Male Playback Singer.

The veteran singer has sung in Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and Oriya languages.

Kishore Kumar started his film career as a chorus singer at Bombay Talkies, a movie studio where his elder brother Ashok Kumar was a star.

Noted music composer, Salil Chowdhury, who was the music director of 'Naukri', was initially dismissive of Kishore Kumar as a singer, as Kishore Kumar didn't have any formal training in music. However, after hearing his voice, he gave him the song 'Chhota sa ghar hoga'.

Mostly remembered for his versatile singing, Kishore entered into acting in 1946, with the movie 'Shikari', in which his elder brother Ashok Kumar played the lead role.

He featured in films like 'Naukri' (1954), 'Musafir' (1957), 'New Delhi' (1957), 'Aasha' (1957), 'Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi' (1958), 'Half Ticket' (1962), 'Padosan' (1968) and others.

In 1964, he produced and directed 'Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein', where he acted with his son Amit Kumar. He also wrote the script and composed music for the film.

It is said that the film 'Anand' (1971) was originally supposed to star Kishore Kumar and Mehmood Ali in the lead. But due to some misunderstanding with Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the director of the film, new actors, late Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan were signed up.


Within the industry, he was well-known for his paranoia of not getting his payment. He would only start recording for a song after having received word from his secretary that the producer had made the payment.

Despite his policy of "no money, no work", Kishore Kumar was often known to sing for many directors for free and even assist them financially sometimes.

The singer married four times and has two sons. His elder son Amit Kumar is a playback singer and younger son Sumit Kumar has sung the title track of the film 'Bachna Ae Haseeno'.

The singer expired in 1987 at the age of 58 years.

Actor-filmmaker Parambrata Chatterjee tweeted:"Remembering the greatest Indian showman ever, Kishore Kumar on this friendship day.."