The Maharashtra government has selected veteran playback singer and National Award winner Suresh Ishwar Wadkar for its prestigious 'Gansamragini Lata Mangeshkar Award' for 2023, Cultural Affairs Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar announced here on Saturday(18 November).

• A Sangeet Natak Akademi laureate (2018), Wadkar, 68, will be presented with a cash prize, a commendation and a memento as part of the award at a ceremony later, an official said.
• Hailing from an ordinary family of Kolhapur, in his younger days, Wadkar was a wrestler and then became a music teacher in Mumbai before winning a singing competition 1976 that got him his first playback singing break with the late music director Ravindra Jain in 1977.
• His earliest hit numbers were “Sona Kare jhilmil jhilmil” (film ‘Paheli’), “Seene Me Jalan” (‘Gaman’), which caught Lata Mangeshkar’s attention and she recommended him to other top music composers of the day.

Abour Lata Mangeskar award : The Lata Mangeshkar Award is a national-level award instituted to honour works in the field of music. The award presented by the Maharashtra government, the Lata Mangeshkar Award for Lifetime Achievement, consisted of cash reward of ?5,00,000, a citation, a trophy and a shawl.