Kumari Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar was born on 28 September 1929 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Her father Dinanath Mangeshkar was a skilled theater singer. Dinanath started teaching music to Lata when she was five years old. His father died in the year 1942. During this time she was only 13 years old. The owner of Navyug Chitrapat Film Company and his father's friend, Master Vinayak (Vinayak Damodar Karnataki), took care of his family and helped Lata Mangeshkar become a singer and actress. Lata Ji also had to face many difficulties in making her place. Lata Ji was compared with the famous playback singer of that time, Noor Jahan. Slowly Lata Ji started getting work. Lata Ji's talent got recognition in 1947 when she got a chance to sing a song in the film "Aapki Seva Mein".Lata Ji got a chance to sing many songs one after the other. Lata Ji also has the distinction of recording a maximum number of songs.

"Aayega Aane Wala" was sung in 1949, after which the number of your fans started increasing day by day. Meanwhile, you worked with all the famous musicians of that time. Anil Biswas, Salil Choudhary, Shankar Jaikishan, S. D. Burman, R. D. Burman, Naushad, Madanmohan, C. Ramchandra, etc. all the musicians considered your talent as iron. He has sung songs in great movies like Do Aankhen Barah Haath, Do Bigha Zameen, Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam, “Mahal”, “Barsaat”, “Ek Thi Ladki”, “Badi Behen” etc.

 Lata Mangeshkar's voice has graced the music world for more than six decades. India's 'Swar Kokila' Lata Mangeshkar has sung more than 30,000 songs in 25-30 languages.

After the death of her father, Lata had to struggle a lot for the money. He did not like acting very much but due to the untimely death of his father, he had to work in some Hindi and Marathi films for money. Her first film as an actress was Pahili Mangalagore (1942), she acted in several films including Majhe Baal, Chimukala Sansar (1943), Gajabhau (1944), Badi Maa (1945), Jeevan Yatra (1946), Maand ( 1948), Chhatrapati Shivaji (1952). Lata starred opposite Noor Jahan in Badi Maa and Asha Bhosle played the role of her younger sister. He also sang songs for his own role and did playback for Asha Bhosle. In 1947, Ustad Ghulam Haider (who had earlier discovered Noor Jahan) had Lata do the playback for that film for his upcoming film. But Ghulam Haider was disappointed. In 1947, Vasant Joglekar gave Lata a chance to sing in his film Aapki Seva Mein. In 1949, Lata got such an opportunity from the song "Aayega Aanewala" from the film "Mahal". After this film was a huge success, Lata never looked back.

 Film fare Awards (1958, 1962, 1965, 1969, 1993, 1994)

National Awards (1972, 1975 and 1990)

Maharashtra Government Award (1966 and 1967)

Padma Bhushan (1969)

Guinness Book Record for most songs in the world (1974) 
Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1989) 
Life Time Achievement Award at Film fare (1993) 
Screen Lifetime Achievement Award (1996) 
Rajiv Gandhi Award (1997) 
NTR Prize (1999) 
Padma Vibhushan (1999)
Lifetime Achievement Award by Zee Cine (1999)
I.I.A. F. Lifetime Achievement Award of (2000)
Stardust's Lifetime Achievement Award (2001)
India's highest civilian award "Bharat Ratna" (2001)
Maharashtra Bhushan (2001)