During the 1960-70s, she was the voice of Bollywood's actress and dancer, Helen, on whom "O Haseena Zulfon Wali" was picturised. Bhosle's collaboration with Burman resulted in numerous hits and a marriage. Shammi Kapoor, the film's leading actor, was once quoted as saying– "If I did not have Mohammad Rafi to sing for me, I would have got Asha Bhosle to do the job". She completed the song after ten days of rehearsals, and "Aaja Aaja", along with such other songs as "O Haseena Zulfonwali" and "O Mere Sona Re" (all three duets with Rafi), became successful. While Burman offered to change the music, she refused, taking it as a challenge. Reportdly, when she first heard the dance number "Aaja Aaja", she felt she would not be able to sing this westernised tune.
Burman's first soundtracks, for the movie Teesri Manzil, won popular acclaim. In 1966, Bhosle's performances in the duets from one of music director R.D.
Bhosle and Nayyar had a professional and personal parting of ways in the 1970s. Gradually, she established her status and received the patronage of such composers as Sachin Dev Burman and Ravi. Nayyar's future collaboration with Bhosle also resulted in success. Chopra approached her for several of his later productions, including Gumrah (1963), Waqt (1965), Hamraaz (1965), Aadmi Aur Insaan (1966) and Dhund (1973).
It was the first time she sang all the songs for a film's leading actress.
Her duets with Rafi like "Maang Ke Saath Tumhara", "Saathi Haath Badhana" and "Uden Jab Jab Zulfein Teri", penned by Sahir Ludhianvi, earned her recognition. Chopra's Naya Daur (1957), composed by him. Raj Kapoor signed her to sing "Nanhe Munne Bachche" with Mohammed Rafi in Boot Polish (1954), which gained popularity. Consequently, film director Bimal Roy gave her a chance to sing in Parineeta (1953). Singing in Sangdil (1952), composed by Sajjad Hussain, she got reasonable recognition. Her earliest songs were composed by A R Qureshi, Sajjad Hussain and Ghulam Mohammed, and most of these songs failed to do well. Most of these were in low budget B or C-grade films. In the 1950s, she sang more songs than most playback singers in Bollywood (not counting Lata). Asha used to get the assignments they refused: singing for the bad girls and vamps, or songs in the second-grade movies. T that time, prominent playback singers like Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum and Lata Mangeshkar dominated the singing for the female lead and the big films. She made her Hindi film debut when she sang the song "Saawan Aaya" for Hansraj Behl's Chunariya (1948).Her first solo Hindi film song was for the movie Raat Ki Raani (1949). The music for the film was composed by Datta Davjekar. She sang her first film song '"Chala Chala Nav Bala" for the Marathi film Majha Bal (1943). She and her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar began singing and acting in films to support their family. The family moved from Pune to Kolhapur and then to Mumbai. When she was nine years old, her father died.