A story on the internet doing the rounds for some months claims that Lata Mangeshkar sang Kishore Kumar’s popular number Yeh jeevan hai iss jevan ka yehi hai yehi hai rang roop (composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal for the film Piya Ka Ghar) and gifted it to him on a special tape as her favourite Kishore Kumar number on her birthday.
This story may sound heartwarming. But it is completely fake. The rendition of Kishore Kumar’s Yeh jeevan hai by Lataji is not a private recording specially for Kishore Kumar. It is part of Lataji’s 1994 album Shradhanjali where she paid a tribute to her colleagues from the singing world.Among them was Kishore Kumar’s Yeh jeevan hai from Piya Ka Ghar.
Lataji denies recording the song specially for Kishore Kumar. “I don’t recall any such incident . Kishoreda and I were very close to one another. He would make me laugh so much during our recordings for me. I cannot single out any one of his songs as my favourite. There were so many: Koi lauta de mere beete huey din(from the film Do Dooni Chaar), Woh sham kuch ajeeb tthi(Khamoshi) and Mera jeevan kora kagaz(Kora Kagaz). Kishoreda was filled with masti but when he sang he projected so much emotion in his voice.”