Happy Birthday- Few Unknown Facts About Life Of Kishore Kumar

Kishore Kumar is truly one of the unforgettable legends of Indian cinema. It is his 89th birth anniversary and people cannot get enough of hearing his numbers on loop. Radio stations have curated best collection of the legendary singer. There are a zillion tales of his idiosyncrasies. It is said that he always wanted to be a singer, but was forced to act in films for money. He was reportedly extremely particular about money and always asked for the full amount. There are stories of him putting a placard of Beware of Kishore sign outside his Warden Road flat. On this special occasion of his birth anniversary, here are seven lesser known facts about him…

* In an interview in 1985, he told Pritish Nandy, how he loathed acting and was only interested in singing, he said “I only wanted to sing. Never to act. But somehow, thanks to peculiar circumstances, I was persuaded to act in the movies. I hated every moment of it and tried virtually every trick to get out of it. I muffed my lines, pretended to be crazy, shaved my head off etc. but who cared?” And you thought it was only Ranveer Singh who’s the zaniest of them all!

* It’s being said that he had a board outside his house stating “Beware of Kishore”.

* He used to talk to trees, would crack jokes with them and preferred them over humans.

* He married four times, first with singer Ruma Ghosh, then actress Madhubala, then he was briefly married to actress Yogita Bali and finally married actress Leena Chandavarkar.

* For a brief while, the mercurial singer even stopped singing for Amitabh Bachchan, apparently because the superstar refused to act under Kishore’s direction in Mamta Ki Chaon Mein. He later signed Rajesh Khanna for that role. Sadly, the movie was released after his death.