The "True" Father Of Indian Films

The Chronolodgical order of motion films begins as :

First it’s Eadweard Muybridge,

Followed by Kinetoscope
‘ Peepshow’ by Edison

and finally the motion picture projector by Lumiere Brothers

 We are told, in India the films history begins with Lumiere Bros. In 1896;

A wrestling picturization by Bhatavdekar in 1897;

Karandikar, Patankar, Divekar picturized a funeral in 1911

& Finally.... ‘ Raja Harishchandra ‘ was released as a proper feature fiction film in May 1913 .

 A major link is missing in this order about the first film in India ....whats it ???

The first fiction film was not ‘ Raja Harischandra ‘

but  ‘Pundalik ‘

by Ramchandra Gopal Alias Dadasaheb Torane in 1912.

Dadasaheb Torane, was the first Indian Producer & Director who made a scripted film with treatment and effects releasing it on May 18^th 1912 in the Coronation Theatre Mumbai.

‘ Pundalik ‘ film initially was a shoot of the theatre drama by one single camera and the camera was static throughout till the end of the play . Torane was unhappy with the results.

Dadasaheb took a revolutionary desicion....
Wrote the jobs in bits and pieces for shooting . 
He shot the play in different types of shots.
Later joined all the shots to get a proper meaning to the film.

These jobs later came to be known as Film Scripting, Shot Breakdown & Editing in scientific filmmaking science.

People commonly call it as the pre-production, production and post-production phases in films.

Dadasaheb Torane was the true father of making a narrated , feature film for the first time in India.

As there was no sound for the film a " Shooting Script " was written by Torane, Ramrao Kirtikar and Nadkarni .

The film was shot at Lamington Road where we see the “ Naaz Cinema “ today, Tribhuvan & Vitthalbhai Road in Mumbai which began from the year 1901. 

An old Williamson camera was bought for Rs.1,000 from Bourne & Shepherd Photographic Company . The cameraman was a foreigner , Mr. Johnson . Till then no one knew the Film Camera. 

It is remarkable here that ‘Pundalik’ was the first Indian film which completed it’s post production in Britain.

He was also an hardcore film marketer . He placed advertisements in English newspapers saying ....

“ Half of the Mumbai has already seen the film ....Half wont Stay Back...Book your tickets today “

The TOI , May 25^th, 1912 advertisement Tagline was –

“ A Fascinating Realistic Subject “

Dadasaheb Torane did it all what we do with the current film production.
But Finally people couldn’t digest a feature film of 1500 feet or 22 mins.

The film ran for two weeks but failed badly at the box office.

...... Dadasaheb Torane - ' True Father Of Indian Films ' , vanished from the scenario
and the film history found a ' New Father of Indian Films ‘ , Dadasaheb Phalke , a year later in 1913. 

Dadasaheb Torane later came back to Mumbai in 1918 and contributed a lot to the Indian Film Industry till 1947.

He holds the record of the first Indian Silver Jubilee Film to his name .  

Dadasaheb Torane was not only a Director but the first producer, writer, director, editor, sound recordist, special effects expert, distributor, film equipment supplier and seller of the Indian film industry......

Lets Call Dadasaheb Torane

“ The GrandFather Of The Indian Films “..!!!!