Apart from singing thousands of songs in a number of movies and in different languages, the late Asha Bhosle also acted in a film and played a titular role in it. Titled Mai (2013), the film was directed by Mahesh Kodiyal and it also starred Padmini Kolhapure, Ram Kapoor, Kshitee Jog along with Anupam Kher in a cameo. In an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama from the US, Mahesh Kodiyal shared interesting bits about Asha Bhosle’s casting in the film and his experience of directing her.

He said that initially he only wanted Bhosle to sing a lullaby and had requested the producer to keep some budget for the same. But it was during the recording that Kodiyal felt that Bhosle would appear perfect for the titular role in Mai. “That was the first time I saw her without make-up or anything,” he said.

“She had come in a simple saree. When I saw her, I realized ki maa toh aisi honi chahiye. I don’t think she should be beautiful or anything like Shabana Azmi, although she has done mother’s roles.

For me, mother’s beauty is within. Every child finds his or her mother beautiful.” Kodiyal shared the same with the producer who encouraged him to ask Bhosle if she would like to act in the film. “I hesitated saying, ‘She is Asha Bhosle!

How can I ask her?’ And she had never acted in a film before. I thought she might get offended. But he said one should ask whatever one has inside.

Whether she says yes or so, at least I will be satisfied that I asked,” said Kodiyal. He further shared, “I asked her. She looked at me sternly and asked, ‘Gana gaane ke liye bulaya tha na?’ I said, ‘Yes, Asha tai’.

She asked, ‘Ho gaya gana?’ I said, ‘Haan, ho gaya, achha hua’. She then told her driver in Marathi, ‘Come on, we need to leave’ and she left. I was just standing there with the producer and assistants and I was like, what the hell happened!

I asked the producer if she felt bad. He said I shouldn’t think that because I did what I had to.” However, after two days, Asha Bhosle’s son Anand Bhosle, who managed her, called the producer. The producer told Kodiyal that he wants to talk to him.

“I was like, ‘What happened now?’ I felt I hope he didn’t feel bad that I asked her mother to act. Her son then called me and asked when can I come to narrate the story. I was very happy and said I can come right away.

He decided on a time and I narrated the story. Immediately, her son said that she will do the film. He said they always wanted her to act in a film as that was the only thing she hadn’t done till then,” he said.

Kodiyal said that Bhosle and Anand told him that they were happy that he didn’t cast her in the role of a singer. “She is a regular mother who is affected by Alzheimer’s. She said in the past whenever she received offers, she was cast as a singer and it was connected to her life,” he said.

Kodiyal shared that they had readings and workshops for a month before the shoot. “Like a dedicated student she used to be there,” he said. “She used to enact every scene.

She worked very hard to play this role. She had to come out of the thought that she is Asha Bhosle and she had to play a middle-class woman. That was the main thing.” The filmmaker said that it wasn’t difficult for Bhosle to act because singers like her and Lata Mangeshkar always used to emote while singing.

“When she sang, ‘Abhi Na Jao Chhod Kar’, you could hear the singer enacting the whole thing. So, she had the actor inside her,” he said. The mahurat shot of Mai was carried out by another legend Yash Chopra.

Kodiyal was stunned by what he told him in front of the press. “He said he had been asking Asha tai to do a film with him but she never said okay to him. He asked me, ‘What did you do or narrate to her that she instantly agreed to do your film?’ I told him that he should ask that to her only.” Kodiyal was also amazed by Bhosle’s enthusiasm to shoot the film.

Once, they had to reach a bungalow at 9 am to shoot the film. “When I was half-way through, she called me and said, ‘I have reached but nobody is opening the gate. There is nobody here’,” he said.

“I was shocked and I told her that it’s just 8:15 am. She said, ‘So what? I wake up at 5 or 6 am. I did riyaaz and got ready.

I thought what to do now, so I told the driver let’s go to the shoot’. I immediately called the production guy and told him to ask the security guard to let Asha ji in. She was so enthusiastic by the whole thing.” Mai starred Padmini Kolhapure as Bhosle’s elder daughter.

Both are related to each other. Kodiyal said that her name was suggested by Bhosle herself. “She said as she is from my family, it will be comfortable for her,” he said.

“At times, Asha tai used to feel how she would enact such an emotional scene. At that time, I used to ask Padmini to make her comfortable. She used to give a fantastic take.

But still she didn’t used to be happy with it. She used to say, ‘Nahin re, maine barabar nahin kiya’. I used to say just that she did is a big thing.” Like everyone, Kodiyal was also sad at t