Despite being such a legend, Lata ji was such a simple person: Akkineni Nagarjuna

"My earliest memory of

Lata

ji is from my film called Aakhari Poratam (1988), which also had Sridevi in it. Ilayaraja garu was doing the music for it and he wanted Lata ji to sing for us. Incidentally, her only other

Telugu

project until then was Santhanam in 1955, which was my father’s (Akkineni

Nageswar Rao

) film. On the day of the recording I remember going to the studio just to watch her. Everyone wondered how she would sing in Telugu, but she rendered the song so beautifully that she proved language wasn’t a problem at all for someone like her. Of course she was a legend by then… So, I just said my namaste and admired her from a distance. Years later though, when my dad instituted the ANR National Award, he wanted her to be honoured. I remember I was given charge of taking care of her along with my sister. I went to the airport, picked her up, and made sure she was comfortable throughout her stay in Hyderabad. Despite being such a legend, she was such a simple person. She spoke very little, but she was very warm. She called me beta. That little time I spent with her has stayed with me as a special memory. It’s hard to pick one or two songs of Lata ji from the ocean of work she's done. But the songs she sang in

Abhimaan

hold a special place in my heart." - Nagarjuna Akkineni