I first met Asha tai for a duet for a film called Dhakti Mehuni (1978). The song was composed by Ram Kinkar. She asked me where I was from and I said though I was from Mumbai, my roots are in Kolhapur. She said she also was from Kolhapur, having spent a considerable time there. She asked me who my guru was, and I said Pandit Jiyalal Vasant. She encouraged me so much. In fact while I was singing, she took my sheet of paper from me and sang in Sudhir Phadke's style and told me to sing like that because the song was composed in a similar vein to Phadke's. I sang it like she instructed.