Kolkata, (IANS) How many of us know that Lata Mangeshkar’s real name was Hema? A new book on her is not only a compendium of all her songs but also chronicles some unknown facts about the singing legend.

Snehasis Chatterjee, a musicologist and a big fan of Lata, has released a book on the Indian ‘nightingale’ titled “Lata Geetikosh”. He claims that his book provides authentic information about her life and career.

For instance, when she was born her parents, Dinanath and Shevanti Mangeshkar, named her Hema and she lent her voice for the first time for a Marathi movie “Kiti Hasaal” in 1942, but the song was not released. It was her song “Nathli chaitrachi navlai” in Marathi film “Pahili Mangalagaur” (1942) that was the first to see the light of day.

She even acted in 10 films, including “Pahili Mangalagaur”, “Badi Maa” (1945), “Jeevan Yatra” (1946), “Mandir” (1948), along with cameos in “Chhatrapati Shivaji” and “Pukar” (2000).

That’s not all. The book also reveals that Lata used to compose songs under the pen name of Anandaghan. She also composed the music for two Bengali songs - “Tare ami chokhe dekhini” and “Ami nei”, which were sung by the versatile Kishore Kumar.

She also composed tracks for five Marathi movies including “Ramram Pahune”.

There is more information in the book - Lata also produced the Marathi movie “Vadaal” (1953) and Hindi films “Jhaanjhar” (1953), “Kanchan” (1955) and “Lekin” (1990).

She was also the producer of the Hindi TV serial “Kuchh Paya Kuchh Khoya” (1989).

Asked what had prompted to write the book, Chatterjee told IANS: “It is very disappointing that till date there are no authentic compilations of Lataji’s songs.

“The paperbacks available at roadside bookstalls are all full of errors. Even the media feeds the public wrong information about the total number of songs she has sung so far,” he added.

“I have always been a diehard Lata fan. But I hit upon the idea of bringing out an authentic compendium of her songs back in 1990 when I started collecting recordings of her songs,” Chatterjee said.

In 2001, Chatterjee even figured in the Limca Book of Records for this effort.

“Lataji has so far rendered 7,000 songs in various languages, including both film and non-film songs. I have all her songs in the form of gramophone records, cassettes, audio and video CDs.

“No one can challenge me with a song that is not included in my collection. Even Lataji has acknowledged my work and sent me her best wishes,” Chatterjee maintained.

Courtesy : www.bollywoodworld.com

When it comes to rules, Priyanka Chopra makes no exceptions, even if it is boyfriend Harman Baweja. The actress refused to kiss the newcomer in Love Story 2050 though a kiss was part of the original script.

“It doesn’t matter who the co-star. I won’t do certain things on screen,” Priyanka told IANS.

When asked about the kiss, Harman said, “It’s true. Both dad and I felt a kiss would have been most appropriate midway through the narration when the first Priyanka character dies in my arms. Dad had written a kiss into the story here. I was supposed to kiss her as she dies in my arms. But Priyanka chose not to shoot the kiss. We respected her decision and let it be.”

But why is Priyanka reluctant to express love in a natural way with a kiss, especially when the co-star is Harman?

“That’s exactly why she didn’t do the kiss. She couldn’t make a concession with me because then other filmmakers would’ve accused her of preferential treatment. So we simply scrapped the smooch.”

Priyanka, incidentally, had done a kiss in her first film Andaaz.

“But that’s when she was new and had no choice. Now on principle she won’t kiss on screen. I respected her decision,” Harman said.

It may be for the first time that Katrina must have celebrated her birthday in such a grand manner complete with big media coverage and attended by some of the most high profile names of the Tinsel Town.

Its quite natural for the magnitude of the celebrations to increase when compared to the past as now she is not the same girl who came to Bollywood a couple of years back.

The titles that have been bestowed upon her in such a short time can make any other leading lady a little bit jealous.

What more should she ask for when she is the sexiest woman in the whole planet, the sultry beauty who graced the cover of the most expensive magazine of the world, the heroine with four back to back hits in 2007 and a block buster in 2008 and is the sweet lady love of none other than Salman Khan.

Other than Salman Khan, his father Salim Khan, mother Helen, and other family members, the big party was attended by Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Govinda, Ranbir Kappor, Deepika Padukone, Dino Morea, Rishi Kapoor, directors David Dhawan, Aneez Bazmee, Karan Johar and Kunal Kohli, yesteryear heroine Karishma Kapoor, Choreographer Shiamak Davar, Rajpal Yadav, etc..