Dadasaheb Phalke
- Byname of:
- Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
- Born:
- April 30, 1870, Trimbak, British India [now in Maharashtra, India]
- Died:
- February 16, 1944, Nashik, Maharashtra (aged 73)
- Notable Works:
- “Bhasmasur Mohini”
- “Raja Harishchandra”
News •
Dadasaheb Phalke (born April 30, 1870, Trimbak, British India [now in Maharashtra, India]—died February 16, 1944, Nashik, Maharashtra) was a film director who is considered the father of Indian cinema. Phalke was credited with making India’s first indigenous feature film and spawning the burgeoning Indian film industry. A talented movie technician, Phalke experimented with a variety of special effects and trick photography to bring to life the fantastical mythological themes that formed the core of his large body of work.
Early life
The son of a priest, Phalke was introduced to Indian epics and Hindu religious texts as a child but displayed greater interest in the creative arts. He joined the Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay (now Mumbai), in 1885, and Kala Bhavan, Baroda (now Vadodara), in 1886. At Kala Bhavan he studied painting and about this time pursued a variety of interests, including photography, lithography, architecture, and amateur dramatics. He briefly worked as a painter, a theatrical set designer, and a photographer. He also dabbled in music and magic tricks.
In 1906 Phalke established Phalke Engraving and Printing Works, which worked on assignments from the lithography press of celebrated painter Ravi Varma, whose paintings of the Hindu gods influenced Phalke’s portrayal of various gods and goddesses in the mythological films he later made. In 1908 Phalke and a partner established a new printing press called Laxmi Art Printing Works, but Phalke later left the business because of differences between them.
Raja Harishchandra and other early films
Phalke’s chance viewing of the silent film The Life of Christ (1910) marked a turning point in his career. Deeply moved by the film, Phalke saw it as his mission to bring Indian culture and mythology to the moving picture screen. After securing a loan from a local businessman, he went to London in 1912 to learn the craft from British pioneer filmmaker Cecil Hepworth. There he also acquired filmmaking gear, including a Williamson film camera, and placed an order for Kodak film stock.
Upon his return to India, he set up a dark room in his bungalow for processing film and immersed himself in the study of popular American films to gauge the preferences of the moviegoing public. For his first feature film, he settled on the tale of Harishchandra, a legendary king from Hindu mythology who is cursed by a sage—a popular story in local theater at the time. The casting process for the feature film was difficult, especially the search for the female lead, as there was considerable social stigma around women acting professionally in films; a young boy was eventually cast in the role. To convince investors and lenders to bankroll his film, he shot and produced a less-than two-minute film called Growth of a Plant, in which he captured the sprouting of a pea plant by shooting one frame a day.
After more than six months of production, he released Raja Harishchandra (“King Harishchandra”), generally regarded as India’s first feature-length film, for public viewing in May 1913 under the banner of Phalke Films Company. The silent film, scripted, produced, directed, edited, and distributed by Phalke, was a commercial and critical success. He followed it up with Mohini Bhasmasur (1913), in which he went against societal taboo to cast a woman in the lead role, and Satyavan Savitri (1914).
While the Indian government and many film scholars recognize Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra as the country’s first indigenous film, some scholars argue that Pundalik (1912), a film by Dadasaheb Torne (also called Ramchandra Gopal Torne) should be considered India’s first indigenous feature film. However, because it was a filmed version of an existing stage play, involved a British cameraman, and was processed in London, Torne’s film is typically not considered India’s first homegrown feature film.
Later works
During the initial years of World War I, Phalke was mired in debt and struggled to procure film stock, resulting in little cinematic output. Partly because of a public appeal made to nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Phalke was able to raise enough funds to produce Lanka Dahan (1917; “The Burning of Lanka”), based on an episode from the Indian epic Ramayana. Lanka Dahan became one of his biggest commercial hits.
Following Lanka Dahan’s success, Phalke established the Hindustan Cinema Film Company with the help of several business partners in 1917. His first films for the company were Shri Krishna Janma (1918; “Birth of Shri Krishna”) and Kaliya Mardan (1919; “The Subduing of Kaliya”), featuring Phalke’s daughter Mandakini Athavale as the infant Krishna. Disagreements soon arose between Phalke and his business partners over production costs. He left the company in 1920, though he later returned to the firm as an employee and made films under its banner until 1929. With the introduction of sound in cinema and the expansion of the film industry, Phalke’s work lost popularity. He left filmmaking in the 1930s and died lonely, embittered, and sick.
(Read Lillian Gish’s 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.)
Legacy
In recognition of Phalke’s contribution to Indian cinema, the Indian government instituted the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1969, an award presented annually by the president of India for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. In 1971 India Post released a postage stamp commemorating Phalke’s cinematic achievements.