Kshitij Patwardhan

Kshitij Patwardhan was born in Pune to a Maharashtrian family. He completed his education at Bharat Marathi Vidyalaya and Abhinav Marathi Vidyalaya. He started writing during his school days and won many prizes in inter-school competitions.

After pursuing a Bachelor of Computer Science and master's degree in communication and journalism, he developed an avid interest in writing. While working with Setu Advertising in Pune, he earned a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)–Laadli National Award for Creative Excellence for Social Change for writing a print advertisement about stopping sex selection.^[11][12][13] He won this award again for a Hindi song that he wrote.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Patwardhan's first Marathi commercial play, Nava Gadi Nava Rajya, was a hit with the youth audience. It ran for 475 shows and earned more than 25 awards.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23]}

In 2015, he adapted a short story by Hanumant Moreshwar Marathe into the play Don Special; the play became a modern classic of Marathi theatre. It had a successful run of 225 shows and won more than 30 awards.^[24][25][26]

He also wrote and directed the first children's play, Aajjibai Jorat, in Marathi theatre which was created using artificial intelligence, starring Nirmiti Sawant and Abhinay Berde. ^[27]

He wrote the Marathi theatre play Bhumika starring Sachin Khedekar, which was acclaimed by critics and audiences alike.

Patwardhan's first film was Aaghat (2010), which he wrote with Sameer Vidwans. He then wrote the dialogue of the youth-centric film Satrangi Re with Hemant Dhome.^[28]

He penned romantic comedies like Time Please, Lagna Pahave Karun and Timepass 2. He wrote the screenplay and dialogues for Classmates, released in 2015. The same year, the film Double Seat, which he conceptualized and wrote, was released. It became one of the most successful Marathi films of 2015.^[29]

In 2016, Patwardhan wrote the coming of age Marathi film called YZ, which was praised by critics.^[30][31] In 2017 he, along with director Aditya Sarpotdar, created the first Marathi teenage detective film, Faster Fene.^[32] In 2018, he wrote Mauli (2018), a Marathi-language action drama film. He wrote the Marathi political thriller film Dhurala in 2020, Taali in 2023, Singham Again in 2024, and Sajini Shinde Ka Viral Video in 2023. He made his directorial debut with the Marathi-language film Uttar,^[33] for which he also wrote the screenplay, dialogues, and song lyrics.

Patwardhan has written more than 150 songs for approximately 70 Marathi and Hindi films including chart buster numbers like "Dhaga Dhaga" from Daagdi Chaawl,^[34] "Awaz vadav DJ" from Poshter Girl,^[35] and "Aaya re Toofan" from Chhaava.^[36] For the Hindi-dubbed version of the Marathi film Ved he wrote the Hindi lyrics for all the songs,^[37] "Phisal Jaa tu" and "Mila tu" from Haseen Dillruba, four songs from the musical film Rocket Gang, "Mohini" from Double Seat,^[38] "Mana shevantiche Phool" from Baapjanma, and "Chalu Chal" and "Rubab Pahije" from Half Ticket.^[39]

Patwardhan has written multiple campaigns for popular brands across Maharashtra and India. His work includes the campaigns for Pro Kabaddi League 2015 and 2017,^[40] Cadbury Dairy Milk, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale, Saraswat Co-operative Bank, and Buldana Urban Cooperative Credit Society.

In 2017, Patwardhan produced and published an illustrated novel in Marathi called Darya. It was written by his brother Vikram Patwardhan.^[41][42][43]