Asha's Encore

She started singing professionally when she was 10 to help pay the family bills. Some 60 years later, Bollywood playback queen Asha Bhosle is, quite probably, the most recorded vocal artist in history. No exact tally exists, but Bhosle estimates she has laid down more than 12,000 songs in over a dozen languages.

For decades, slinky Bollywood actresses and dancers have been lip synching to her piquant vocal lines. In recent years, Bhosle has also occasionally collaborated with Western singers, including Boy George and Michael Stipe of R.E.M., and she opened a restaurant, Asha's, in Dubai in...