Laxmikant was admitted to the hospital last evening after suffering a kidney failure and had been hooked onto a dialysis machine. He was 58 and is survived by his wife and two sons.

Starting out as a child artiste in Bollywood, Laxmikant went on to become a music arranger for composers and later an assistant to music director duo of Kalyanji-Anandji.

Teaming up with Pyarelal in 1963, the duo scored a hit with numbers like Hasta Hua Noorani Chehra in Parasmani in 1963 dethroning the reigning Shankar-Jaikishen. The Laxmikant-Pyarelal combo went on to rule the roost in Bollywood for over three decades composing films for a record of nearly 480 films.

Taking on other music directors like RD Burman and Kalyanji-Anandji through the '60s and '70s, they werethe last of the old guard who withstood the withering competition from young guns like Anu Malik and Nadeem-Shravan in the 90s.

They became familiar names on all the big banners, from Raj Kapoor to Subhash Ghai. Their stunning music success ensured film makers repeated them.

Veteran director J Om Prakash termed Laxmikant's death a personal loss to him because he had composed music for a dozen films beginning with his Aaye Din Bahar Ke.

``The industry has lost a gem of a music director who was always smiling and composed the best tunes that made everybody hum,'' he reflected. ``Three days ago when I had gone to see him in the hospital I found him in coma and was told he was fighting death,'' he added. The last film the duo composed for was Ketan Desai's Deewana Mastana in 1997.