Which Was the First Movie in India?

The Indian cinema did not start with the clapboard held by a film director or the face of a movie star on a poster, but with a flicker of light on a white sheet, and with a crowd of people who have never seen anything so. The history of the first film made in India is just a tale of wonder, risk, sacrifice and the magnificent faith of one man that India needed to be projected on the silver screen.

The First Encounter With Cinema in India

Before making its own films, the country took inspiration from others. 

Indian cinema was born on July 7, 1896 at Watson Hotel, Bombay when the Lumiere brothers of France projected six movies. The Lumieres were filmmakers and French inventors of the cinematograph who arrived in India to project their movies because of the excellent display of their cinematic quality in Paris. The ticket cost Rs. 1. 

The show was met with a huge success and Motion Pictures were soon introduced to India at Kolkata (Calcutta) and Chennai (Madras). 

The idea was born and the only thing India wanted now was someone who would bring this to life. 

The DAV University mentions: “The cinematographe (from where we have the name cinema) invented by the Lumiere brothers functioned better the Kinetoscope of Edison and Dickson. The Lumiere brothers who invented the cinematographe started projection of short (very short, one to two minutes long) films for the Parsian public on November 28, 1895. Cinema was shown for the first time in India by the Lumiere brothers on July 17, 1896 at the Watson Hotel in Mumbai. This was just six months after their first show in Paris.”

The Man Who Dared: Dadasaheb Phalke

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke who is famously referred to as Dadasaheb Phalke was born on 30 April 1870 and is generally considered to be the Father of Indian Cinema. 

He was also a man of many trades before he became a filmmaker, some of them were printer, photographer, magician and artist. However, no career of his prepared him for the thunderbolt which fell upon him on an April evening in 1911.

The French film The Life of Christ (1902) inspired Phalke apparently into making movies when he watched it twice in a day. He left his job in the printing press and went to London where he learned the technicalities of creating a film. In India, he vowed his life-assurance policies and his wife sold jewellery to get the capital needed. 

Which Was the First Movie in India?

What Phalke now tried was extraordinary, and he did it almost single-handedly.

Phalke did the scripture and direction, production design, make-up, editing, and film processing, while Trymbak B. managed the camera. 

His topic was deep-rooted in Indian mythology - the story of King Harishchanda, a virtuous king of the Sanskrit epics, who refuses to lie or to give up his principles even when placed in the harshest of circumstances created by the sage Vishwamitra.

Dadasaheb Phalke casted Dattatraya Damodar Dabke, an actor of Marathi stage as the lead role in Raja Harishchandra’s play, but failed to cast a woman to play the role of the wife of Harishchandra, Taramati. Acting was not a decent trade back then. 

In a bid to locate females who were ready to play the movie, Phalke was compelled to use men to fill the female parts including the wife of Harishchandra, actress Anna Salunke who served as a cook in a restaurant. He made his own son named Bhalchandra to be the son of Harishchandra. The recording studio was established in Dadar in Mumbai and outdoor shooting of scenes was carried out in a village near Pune.

The Release That Changed India

It was first shown at the Olympia Theatre, Bombay, on 21 April 1913, and released in theatres on 3 May 1913 at the Coronation Cinematograph and Variety Hall, Girgaon. It was a commercial hit and the foundation of the film industry of the country. 

The premier was not an easy one, though. Despite advertising, the first showing met a lukewarm response, earning just ₹3. Phalke graciously declined the idea to cancel the show or lower the ticket prices. He had placed an advertisement in Gujarati inviting people to view 57,000 photos of three-quarters of an inch by two miles in length, breadth and length, at a single Indian anna. 

He also had his actors enact some of the film's scenes at the town's crossroads. The advertisement worked and the sales went up to ₹300. 

Word spread fast. Raja Harishchandra was housefull and extended for twelve days after that. It was subsequently screened later in Pune, Colombo, London and Rangoon. 

Phalke scripted, produced, directed, edited, and distributed the silent film, which was a commercial and critical hit. 

It started with a French train on a screen and a printer hailing from Maharashtra with a bigger dream. Raja Harishchandra by Dadasaheb Phalke is considered to be the first feature film ever in India, which came in theaters in May 1913. The genesis of all Indian cinema after almost 110 years shows that it started with one flickering reel and one man who felt that his nation was worthy of making it to the silver screen.

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