Kishore Kumar's songs were banned on state radio, TV for a year during Emergency

Few people know that songs by the celebrated Hindi film singer Kishore Kumar were once banned for an entire year. His son, singer Amit Kumar, narrated the episode himself. The voice that enthralled audiences for decades was kept off government media for a year.

The episode dates back to the Emergency, in 1975, when Kishore Kumar's songs stopped being played on government radio and Doordarshan.

Kishore Kumar had been asked to sing at a Congress government cultural programme and to promote the government's 20-point programme, but he had flatly refused. The then Information and Broadcasting Minister V. C. Shukla was displeased by this refusal. As a result, all of Kishore Kumar's songs were banned as punishment, a ban that was enforced across all government media.

Kishore Kumar is known to everyone. He began his singing career in 1948 with the film Ziddi. Music director Khemchand Prakash gave him his first break. He went on to give Hindi cinema one hit song after another. His voice had a distinct energy, and the style of yodelling he developed was completely his own. This style kept him at the top of the film and music industry for several decades.

He sang several romantic songs for Rajesh Khanna as well as for the "angry young man" Amitabh Bachchan, including Roop Tera Mastana (Aradhana), Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas (Blackmail) and O Mere Dil Ke Chain (Mere Jeevan Saathi). He later also sang for Marathi cinema, including the song Ashwini Ye Na from the film Gammat Jammat.

Amit Kumar narrated the full story on Kapil Sharma's show. According to him, when government officials approached Kishore Kumar with the proposal to sing, he directly asked how much he would be paid. He made it clear that he would not sing without payment. This was the reason the government imposed the ban on him. The ban lasted for close to a year.