Dadasaheb Phalke Death Anniversary: Lesser-known Facts About 'Father of Indian Cinema'

Dadasaheb Phalke was a pioneer of Hindi cinema who passed away on February 16, 1944. Here are some lesser-known facts about this legendary filmmaker which are mentioned in the following slides.

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He was born as Dhundiraj Govind Phalke on April 30, 1870. The title “Dadasaheb” was an honourary prefix given to him later.

Before venturing into cinema, Phalke was a trained artist, photographer, and printer. He studied at the Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai.

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He decided to make movies after watching ‘The Life of Christ’ (1906) in a theater, which inspired him to create Indian mythology-based films.

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His first film, ‘Raja Harishchandra’ (1913), faced several hurdles, including financial troubles. He even had to sell his wife’s jewelry to fund the project.

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Women were reluctant to act in films at that time, so he had to cast male actors in female roles. The role of Queen Taramati in Raja Harishchandra was played by a male actor named Salunke.

To learn the art of filmmaking, he traveled to London and trained under Cecil Hepworth, a British filmmaker.

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In his film ‘Lanka Dahan’ (1917), he used double exposure techniques to show the same actor playing both Ram and Sita, an early example of visual effects in Indian cinema.

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