Sudhir Phadke

Phadke was born at Kolhapur on 25 July 1919 and named Ram Vinayak Phadke; he adopted the name Sudhir while composing for His Master's Voice. He learned classical music under Vamanrao Padhye at Kolhapur and initially intended to become a classical vocalist before turning to lighter forms.

Phadke began recording with His Master's Voice in 1941 and joined the Prabhat Film Company as a music director in 1946. Across some five decades he composed for more than a hundred Marathi and Hindi films and worked extensively as a playback singer, including a long collaboration with Asha Bhosle in Marathi cinema.

Alongside his musical career he was active in social causes. On Gudi Padwa, 12 April 1975, he joined Bindumadhav Joshi and Madhukar Mantri in starting Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, which organised middle-class households into Grahak Sanghas of at least twenty-five families that bought essential groceries directly from producers and wholesalers and distributed them monthly on a no-profit, no-loss basis. The organisation grew into one of India's largest voluntary consumer bodies, with around 30,000 member families in Maharashtra by its fiftieth year.

He died in Mumbai on 29 July 2002 following a brain haemorrhage. He was married to the singer Lalita Deulkar; their son, Shridhar Phadke, is also a composer and singer. A flyover and a street in Mumbai have been named after him.

Phadke received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Marathi in 1963 for Ha Majha Marg Ekla, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1991, and the Sahyadri Swara Ratna Puraskar in 2002.[2][3][4]