Laxmikant Pyarelal is the name adopted by the Indian film composing duo of mandolin player Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar (born 1937; died May 25, 1998) and violinist Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma (born 1940), who met at Lata Mangeshkar's music academy. Starting as studio musicians, they had their first credit as a music directing team with the 1963 film Parasmani and gained significant recognition the following year with Dosti. From there, the two were responsible for the music used in hundreds of Bollywood films starting running through the '90s. (They actually wrote both separately and together, but always credited their work jointly as Laxmikant Pyarelal.) After Kudalkar's death ended the duo, Sharma went into semi-retirement. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi