The Dadasaheb Phalke Academy will honour filmmaker Yash Chopra, Rajesh Khanna and Asha Bhosle with the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards at 13th Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards ceremony that would be held on 30 April.

Starring <strong>Asha Bhosle, Padmini Kolhapure, Ram Kapoor</strong> Directed by <strong>Mahesh Kodiyal</strong> Rating: <strong>*** ?</strong> The Mother is a figure that instantly evokes tender thoughts in each of us. Getting singing diva Asha Bhosle to play the mother in <em>Mai</em> was a master-stroke. At 80, Asha<em>ji </em> with all her years of experience as a singer of unlimited range brings those vocal emotions into visual terms.

Director Mahesh Kodyal’s Hindi film Mai where Asha Bhosle makes her debut as an actress is on release. The legendary songstress says it was not difficult to make the transition from singing to acting at this late stage of her life when she is 80. Says Ashaji, “It’s a mother’s role. I didn’t have to act. In fact I think acting is much easier than singing. While acting you get your emotions broken into several shots before they’re conveyed. While singing all the emotion have to come out in one go in one take. No, I didn’t find playing the mother in Mai too difficult.”

The lately-bereaved singing diva Asha Bhosle, whose daughter Varsha died tragically in October, had decided to stay away this year from her New Years eve ritual of personally cooking and looking after guests at her restaurant in Dubai, has decided to go ahead with the annual event for the sake of the restaurant’s clientele who religiously visit Dubai at year-end from all across Asia to be hosted personally by Asha Bhosle at her restaurant.

On Monday morning singing legend Asha Bhosle who was in Singapore to attend a Marathi awards function, received a call in her hotel room from her driver in Mumbai informing her that her daughter Varsha had hurt herself. Asha<em>ji</em> immediately rang up a family friend requesting him to rush to the Bhosle-Mangeshkar residence Prabhu Kunjon Peddar Road.