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He made his entry into music world when there were stalwarts like Vasant Desai and Sudhir Phadke in the field. But, a determined Ashok Patki with the blessings of his Guru Jitendra Abhisheki entered the Marathi entertainment industry by composing music for children’s stage plays. Till that time he used to accompany his sister Meena Patki( Kakodkar) as her body guard for all her programmes. Meena was the only singer in their family. His father worked in a Mill and therefore being in a middle class family, he studied in a municipal school.
Since childhood, he was very fond of two musical instruments - Tabla and Harmonium; and mastered the art of playing the same at home. He was very much attracted to good musical rhymes and often composed music for them in his own style. He often bunked his classes in school, to attend music recordings of well known singers and music directors. After completing his school studies, he could not complete his college education; instead he focused on music facing opposition from family.
After a long struggle, he had an opportunity to compose music for Suman Kalyanpur’s album and later accompanied her as a composer for her shows abroad. There was no stopping for Ashok Patki since then. From 1969 till date. i.e. for forty years non stop he has been composing music for Jingles, stage plays, films and TV serials. Ashok Patki has to his credit 500 devotional songs, 250 music/ background score for stage plays, music for 50+ films, title song score for more than 250 serials and a record music for 5000 + jingles.
Like many other music directors, he too struggled a lot till the age of 32, but finally made his mark into this field. He first assisted Jitendra Abhisheki for background stage music and Robin Banerjee for film music and later worked independently. During his career, he had competition from music directors like Yashwant Deo( for his classical touch), Anil Mohile( known for Folk music) and Ram Laxman( who then composed for Dada Kondke films). But, with a lot of confidence in self, he made his own identity offering his variety. Even today, he is in great demand, with most of the Marathi serials having his title song.
There are still about 150 serials which are in the making, with his title songs. Having won several awards in Maharashtra state for his contribution to music, he has also won the RAPA award for best jingles. His jingle ‘Mile Sur Mera tumhara’ based on national integration is still fresh in our memory. Some of his other popular jingles are for Zandu Balm, Laajari and Santoor. Besides his background score for two Marathi dramas of Suyog, his forthcoming films as Music director are : ‘Kay Pahilat Majhyat’, ‘Me Ek Bandu’, ‘Kimayagar’ and ‘Disha’.
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