Kishore Kumar asked wife Ruma Devi to quit singing and stay at home, reveals son: ‘She was singing with Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Mukesh'

Indian Express

a day ago

By all means, Kishore Kumar is probably the greatest Bollywood singer-actor to have ever graced the camera and the microphone. While his career is now remembered like a fever dream consisting of one super-hit song after another, he too had his own set of troubled times, both professionally and personally. Kumar was married a total of 4 times, and with his first wife, Ruma Guha Thakurta, the singer shared a son, Amit Kumar, who later followed in the footsteps of his father and entered the industry. In a recent interview, Amit opened up about the complicated relationship his parents had and what all transpired between the duo before their divorce.
While talking to Radio City, Amit was asked about his mother and how she herself was an established name in the industry before meeting his father. He revealed how his mother came from a family of intellectuals and artistes and how she had a choir group with some of the biggest names in the industry. He said, 'My mother became very involved with the Bombay Talkies and everyone that was collaborating there. She had her own choir group called the Bombay Youth Choir, and it consisted of Salil Chowdhury, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Mukesh, and Prem Dhawan. Out of all these people, it was mother who was one of the main pillars of this group and was second to Salil sir.'
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He added how his mother had even started acting as a child and had already worked in film with the likes of Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, and Ashok Kumar. 'She was already working with all these people, and in walked my father, who still was struggling at the time. He used to travel around with Dev Sahab, and all of them ended up at Bombay Talkies. The two of them met, and it was love at first sight, and they got married.' However, Amit revealed that within a few years of their marriage, Kishore wanted Ruma to stay at home and handle the household, which was something she didn't agree with, and it caused quite a clash between the two.
'My father was ideologically a very different man than her, and both of them were strong-minded artistes, and a clash was bound to happen. He wanted her to stay at home and thought that as she was now married, her duties had changed and she had to take care of the house, and he had to become the sole breadwinner,' added Amit.
The couple divorced seven years after getting married. Her film career revived after that while Kishore emerged as a multi-hyphenate, a singer, actor and filmmaker whose persona towers over Indian cinema even today.