When we first called her at 6.12 pm and Narendra Modi was yet to take his oath as the prime minister of India.

She picked up my call and said, “Haan Lata Didi mere paas hai, magar woh TV dekh rahi hai.” (Yes Lata Didi is with me but she is busy watching television).

Those who know Lata Mangeshkar well, know about this sense of humour. I laughed and told her that I will call after the Narendra Modi is sworn in.

She agreed and we called her again at 6.31 pm.

By that time, president Pranab Mukherjee has introduced us to the 15th prime minister of the country.

Though a big Bollywood brigade was there at the ceremony, Lata Mangeshkar was the first legendary celebrity who came out in support of Narendra Modi. Lata endorsed Narendra Modi as the prime minister of India when most of in Bollywood were still deciding on their loyalties. She said she just spoke out of instinct.

After Modi inaugurated a new hospital complex named after her late father Deenanath Mangeshkar at a function at Pune on Nov 1, 2013, Lata, in a brief address, said “Narendrabhai is like my brother. All of us want to see him become the Prime Minister. On the auspicious occasion of Diwali, I hope our wishes would come true.”

“My instinct told me that he will be the prime minister. There was no stopping him. You speak to a person and you get this feeling about him. I had this feeling and it was very strong. I knew that it was tough decision to come out and say that he should be the PM of the country but I was just being honest. The statement in support of him of Narendra Modi was not a calculated decision,” said Lata.

The songstress said that she wanted to travel to Delhi to watch the ceremony but her health didn’t permit it. “I wanted to go there but I am not allowed to travel much now. I missed being there, but I caught all the action on my TV,” she said.

The legend then revealed that Modi had replied to her tweet, where she had conveyed her best wishes to him just before the swearing in ceremony. But apart from that there has been no interactions so far.

“We have interacted on Twitter. I tweeted to him and wrote him a letter. But I didn’t want to call him as he would be extremely busy now. We will talk when he will be free,” she added.

Namaskar Narendra bhai.aaj hum saare deshwaasi mangal kaamnaao’n ke roop me aap ke saath upasthit hain. pic.twitter.com/1Sd05kvgOV

— latamangeshkar (@mangeshkarlata) May 26, 2014

Lata Mangeshkar also wrote a letter to Narendra Modi which he tweeted to his followers.

Thank you Lata Didi. As always, your greetings and best wishes inspire me deeply pic.twitter.com/TRcMpoA3cg

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2014

Lata said that she is planning to invite Modi to her house when he comes to Mumbai next.

“I don’t know if he will be able to come home, he is such a big man now!” she said.