दादासाहेब फाल्के / मधुकर बावडेकर

This joint credit covers the song lyrics of Gangavataran (1937), the only sound film — and the last film — of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema. Dhundiraj Govind 'Dadasaheb' Phalke (1870–1944) made India's first feature film, Raja Harishchandra, in 1913 and directed nearly a hundred films in the silent era; when the talkies arrived, the Maharaja of Kolhapur's studio Kolhapur Cinetone invited the ageing pioneer to make one sound film. That film, the mythological Gangavataran, took two years to complete and premiered on 6 August 1937 at the Royal Opera House in Bombay, with Phalke himself credited among the writers of its songs, set to music by the Kirana gharana singer Vishwanathbuwa Jadhav. Sharing the film's direction and writing credits was Madhukar Bawdekar (also spelled Bavdekar), a Kolhapur-based filmmaker who assisted the elderly Phalke through the production and is listed as co-director and co-lyricist in film records. Bawdekar went on to a career of his own in Marathi cinema, directing films such as Janmachi Gath (1949), Gavachi Izat (1962) and Ti Mi Navhech (1970). Contemporary records do not separate which of Gangavataran's songs each man wrote, so the songs carry this shared credit.