Why did Amitabh Bachchan not turn up for the funeral of Lata Didi?

Compiled by Jyothi Venkatesh

Lata Mangeshkar breathed her last yesterday on February 6 at the age of 92 in Mumbai. As news of Lata Mangeshkar’s demise broke, several celebrities were seen rushing to her residence to pay their last respects to the legend. Amitabh Bachchan was one of them and though he was spotted arriving at Lata Mangeshkar’s Peddar Road house with his daughter Shweta Nanda Bachchan in the afternoon, he was missing from Lata Mangeshkar’s funeral, which took place on Sunday evening at Shivaji Park in Dadar, Mumbai with attendees like Prime Minister Narendra Modi , Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray besides several Bollywood personalities, like Shah Rukh Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Javed Akhtar, Aamir Khan, Shankar Mahadevan among others.

Amitabh Bachchan was unable to make it to the funeral at Shivaji Park. Why? According to the portal India Today.in, Mr Bachchan paid his condolences, met Lata Mangeshkar’s family at their Peddar Road residence, spoke to Lata Didi’s family and later left the venue but did not attend the funeral at Shivaji Park, keeping in mind the Covid-19 protocols and also to safeguard his own health. Since the funeral was happening in a public place and could have attracted large crowds, Mr Bachchan chose to instead offer his condolences to the family at the residence.

Taking to his blog, Amitabh Bachchan mourned Lata Mangeshkar’s demise. “She has left us… The voice of a million centuries has left us .. her voice resounds now in the Heavens !” he wrote. “Prayers for calm and peace ..(sic),” the senior actor wrote.