She started out as a ‘nightclub singer’ but soon she went on to work in films and became a household name across India. Meet iconic singer Usha Uthup, who recently starred in the ZEE5 Original film Filter Coffee Liquor Chaa, who celebrates her birthday today. On her special day, find out if you knew these little-known things about her.

Contrary to what most people think, Usha Uthup began her career at a nightclub in Chennai in 1969. She shifted to Kolkata the same year and started working at Trinca’s.

Not just Hindi or Bangla, Usha has sung in 16 Indian languages. These include Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani, Dogri, Khasi, Sindhi and Oriya. She’s sung in foreign languages too, such as Spanish, French, German, Zulu, Swahili, Sinhala, Ukranian and Russian. Phew!

As a singer at Trinca’s, Usha has had various stalwarts as her audience. Some names include superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Uttam Kumar, Supriya Devi and master director Satyajit Ray among others.

Not just stars from the film world, Usha said in an interview that she once had Leftist stalwarts like late Jyoti Basu, former chief minister of West Bengal and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in the audience while she sang the popular Rabindrasangeet Purano Sei Diner Kotha in Trinca’s.

Post Trinca’s, Usha shifted to Delhi. It is there she met a film crew of which superstar Dev Anand was a part. He introduced her to playback singing and the rest is history. Her Bollywood debut was with an English song in the film Bombay Talkies. It was Hare Rama Hare Krishna which made her popularity soar.

While Usha has sung in a lot of languages, she finds it most difficult to sing in Malayalam, she had said in an interview. However, she is also conscious that she is pronouncing the words correctly. So when she speaks in languages she isn’t confident in, she first writes the lyrics in English and then uses her own personal code. She finds Tamil the easiest. Bengali and Konkani are easy for her too.

For more entertainment, watch ZEE5 Original film Daab Chingri, now streaming.