I shared a great friendship with Shankar-Jaikishan. But I worked with equal sincerity for all composers. If I began to discriminate for personal reasons, work would suffer. I never compromised on quality. With [composer] Chitragupta, who was a family friend, I did lovely songs like Dil ka diya jala ke gaya in Akash Deep and Sona na sitaron ka hai kehna in Opera House.

I did more work with Vasant Desai, most of it for V Shantaram's films. I gave playback to Shantaramji's first wife Jayshree [also a singer] and his second wife Sandhya.

Vasant Desai was a Maharashtrian like me, and a very quiet man. My work with him in a Marathi film Amar Bhopali was outstanding, and the bhajan Ae maalik tere bande hum in Do Aankhen Barah Haath is a classic.

But you cannot overlook Pandit Ravi Shankar with whom I did just a handful of songs, including Haye re woh din in Anuradha.

B Saroja Devi and Ajit in Opera House