Lata first Indian at Royal Albert Hall, loved to play slot machine in Vegas

New Delhi, Feb 6 Known as ‘the Nightingale of India’ ‘Swarkokila’ Lata Mangeshkar was the first Indian artist to perform at the famous Royal Albert Hall at London with the Wren Orchestra way back in 1974. An avid photography enthusiast, Lata Mangeshkar initially tried her hands with a Rolleiflex camera, and loves to click when on holiday in the US, mostly.

On holidays in the US, she loved playing the slot machines in Las Vegas through the night.

“This may sound strange but when I used to visit America on holiday, I loved spending time in Las Vegas. It’s an exciting city. I really enjoyed playing the slot machines. I never played roulette or cards – but I used to spend the whole night at a slot machine. I was very lucky and won many times,” she admitted during one interview with the British broadcaster.

London based British Broadcasting Company (BBC) published many of such facts about the Bollywood legend on Sunday in ‘Obituary: Lata Mangeshkar, ‘Nightingale of Bollywood’ dies at 92′, in which the broadcaster compiled many interviews and interactions with Bollywood superstar singer over the years.

A foodie, Lata Mangeshkar burnt her stress through cooking and watching cricket matches, mostly the test series through video cassettes, proudly boasted of owning a signed photograph of Don Bradman, and one from Sachin Tendulkar, she revealed in one of her interviews.

Lata Mangeshkar enjoyed listening to Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Nat King Cole, the Beatles, Barbra Streisand and Harry Belafonte. She went to see Marlene Dietrich singing on stage, and loved Ingrid Bergman’s theatre. She also loved going to the movies – her favourite Hollywood film was The King and I, which she said she saw at least 15 times, and Singing in the Rain. The James Bond films – or at least the ones featuring Sean Connery or Roger Moore – were also a favourite. But Bond wasn’t the only British hero to catch her attention, she also owned every single one of the Sherlock Holmes detective novels, writes BBC in its obituary.

Cars were another passion. At various points in her life she owned a grey Hillman and blue Chevrolet, Chrysler and a Mercedes. At home, she owned nine dogs.

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