First female winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Filmfare Awards

On 12 February 1994, playback singer Lata Mangeshkar (India, b. Hema Mangeshkar, 1929–2022) was the third recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 39th Filmfare Awards, which honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi film industry. Following recognition for actors Amitabh Bachchan in 1991 and Dev Anand in 1993 (no award was given in 1992), Mangeshkar was the first singer and also the first female to be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.

Between 1991 and 2021, 46 people received the Filmfare Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award, but only three have been singers above all else: Mangeshkar (1994), Asha Bhosle (2001) and Manna Dey (2011).

Mangeshkar, affectionately known as the “Queen of Melody” and the “Nightingale of India”, enjoyed a singing career spanning almost 70 years, in which time she recorded thousands of songs in more than 30 different Indian languages. She was also an occasional composer and film producer.

In 1989, Mangeshkar was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest honour in cinema, and in 2001 she received the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, awarded previously to the likes of Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Vallabhbhai Patel and Ravi Shankar.

Mangeshkar died of multiple organ failure on 6 February 2022 after contracting COVID-19. She was 92.