Dada Saheb Phalke - The Father of Indian Cinema

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Dadasaheb Phalke - The Father of Indian Cinema was born as Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, at Trymbakeshwar near Nasik in 1870. Being son of a shashtri, Dajishastri Phalke, he was committed to be shastri and was trained for a career, as a Sanskrit scholar.

Dadasaheb Phalke as he was to be later called, came to Bombay (now Mumbai) with his clan when his father joined Wilson College as a professor. Having a keen interest in arts, Dadasaheb Phalke joined Sir J. J. School of Arts in 1885 for a course in Drawing and then continued with his art studies at Baroda’s famous Kalabhavan.

Formerly he earned his living painting the scenes for various dramatic companies. Later, he began as a photographer. In 1903, he joined the Archaeological Department as a photographer and this was where he was introduced to the magic of cinema. Thus, ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was made in 1913 under the banner of Phalke Film Co.

In 1917, Phalke Film Co. was integrated into the Hindustan Film Co.

Dadasaheb’s ‘Raja Harishchandra’ is recognized as the first indigenously made ’story’ film. It was released in Bombay in 1913, and was not only produced, directed, written and photographed by him, but also processed, printed and edited by him. Except for the imported camera, the processing outfit and the raw film, which were not made in India, everything was organized by him locally.

Thus, D.G. Phalke was the foremost pioneer of the Indian Cinema who established the basic norms of film-making in almost every department of this conglomerate art. He was his own scenarist, cameraman, art-director, costume-designer, editor, processor, printer, developer, projectionist and even distributor. This one man institution gave India its most fundamental traditions in film making and established the motion picture as a form of entertainment, a medium, an art, and an aspect and extension of Indian culture.

In fact, it was Dadasaheb Phalke who introduced the first heroine to Indian Cinema.

Those were the times when there was a dearth of talented artistes willing to work in films. Even stage artistes shied away from the new medium, no woman, not eve a dancing girl, would agree to act in a film.

So for the role of Taramati in Raja Harishchandra Phale had to go to a delicate looking young man. He selected Salunke to play Taramati, Salunke who was serving as a cook in a restaurant. Later Salunke played both Rama and Seeta in Lanka Dahan and became the most popular actor and actress of the period. The film was Phalke’s biggest hit.
His other noted films are Shri Krishna Janma (1918),Kaliya Mardan (1919),Setu Bandhan (1923) and Gangavataran (1937).

In the year 1969 that is celebrated as the birth centenary year of the Father of Indian Cinema, in a belifting commemoration of his contribution to Indian Cinema, a new National Award named Dadasaheb Phalke Award was introduced.

This Award is given annually for distinguished contribution to the film medium, its growth and promotion. It has been given to some really eminent personalities.The first recipient of this Award was Devika Rani Roerich, popular as Devika Rani. Last year it went to late legendary filmmaker Tapan Sinha.

At the age of 74 on February 16th, 1944 Dadasaheb Phalke expired in Nasik.