Born on 15th October, 1921, Shri Dilip Dholakia has achieved great heights in the field of music. Coming from a middle class "vadnagara" nagar family, Dilipbhai (as he is popularly known) used to play the flute and tabla right from his childhood.

He then took to singing and started his training under Pandurang Ambedkar (a disciple of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan of Bhendi Bazar gharana), and Gurubhai (of Pandit Shivkumar Shukla, the renowned Gujarati classical singer).

With the passage of time, he developed a taste in the lighter side of singing and composing. As a singer, his most popular songs were Tari aankh no afini, tari utareli paagh mane aap mara swami.

Music in Gujarati films like Satyawam Savitri, Kankoo, , Bhagwan Swaminarayan, Diva-dandi was done by him. He also sang in the Hindi film Kismatwala (1944) with music of Ratanlal.

Later, Dilipbhai worked as an arranger with music directors such as Chitragupta from 1951 to 172, Shri S. N. Tripathi and finally from 1972 to 1988 with the famous Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo.

He then became actively involved with Pragat Brahmaswaroop Shree Pramukhswami Maharaj's work. He has composed lots of musical pieces and recordings for the Swaminarayan sect. Dilipbhai spent his semi-retired life with his elder son (Kandarp) in Ahmedabad, and partly at Mumbai with his younger son (Rajat Dholakia, a brilliant music composer too).

He breathed his last on Jan 2, 2011 at Mumbai.