{"id":2274,"date":"2026-10-13T20:57:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/13\/dadasaheb-phalke-father-of-indian-cinema\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T21:18:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:48:29","slug":"dadasaheb-phalke-father-of-indian-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/13\/dadasaheb-phalke-father-of-indian-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"Dadasaheb Phalke: The Father of Indian Cinema and the Story of Raja Harishchandra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Last updated: October 2026 \u00b7 3 min read<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Every Indian film, from a Marathi drama to a pan-India blockbuster, owes something to <b>Dhundiraj Govind Phalke<\/b>, popularly called <b>Dadasaheb Phalke<\/b>. In 1913 he released <b>Raja Harishchandra<\/b>, India&#8217;s first full-length feature film.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dadasaheb-phalke-father-of-indian-cinema.png\" alt=\"Infographic: Dadasaheb Phalke: The Father of Indian Cinema and the Story of Raja Harishchandra\" class=\"wp-image-2273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dadasaheb-phalke-father-of-indian-cinema.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dadasaheb-phalke-father-of-indian-cinema-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dadasaheb-phalke-father-of-indian-cinema-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dadasaheb-phalke-father-of-indian-cinema-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption>Dadasaheb Phalke: The Father of Indian Cinema and the Story of Raja Harishchandra \u2013 infographic by Tiwaripedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Early life<\/h2>\n<p>Phalke was born on 30 April 1870 at Trimbak near Nashik, Maharashtra. He studied at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai and worked as a photographer, printer and magician before discovering cinema.<\/p>\n<h2>The spark: The Life of Christ<\/h2>\n<p>Around 1910, Phalke watched the film <i>The Life of Christ<\/i> in a Bombay theatre. Inspired, he decided to make films about Indian stories. He travelled to London in 1912 to learn filmmaking and buy equipment, funding it partly by pledging his family&#8217;s savings.<\/p>\n<h2>Making Raja Harishchandra (1913)<\/h2>\n<ul><li>Based on the legend of the truthful king Harishchandra.<\/li><li>Released on 3 May 1913 at the Coronation Cinema, Bombay.<\/li><li>It was a silent film with title cards in Marathi, Hindi and English.<\/li><li>No women would act, so men played female roles; Anna Salunke played Queen Taramati.<\/li><li>Phalke&#8217;s wife Saraswatibai helped with processing and production.<\/li><\/ul>\n<h2>Later work<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Year<\/th><th>Film<\/th><th>Note<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>1913<\/td><td>Raja Harishchandra<\/td><td>First Indian feature film<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1913<\/td><td>Mohini Bhasmasur<\/td><td>Featured Durgabai Kamat and her daughter Kamlabai Gokhale, among the first women on Indian screen<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1917<\/td><td>Lanka Dahan<\/td><td>Huge commercial hit<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1919<\/td><td>Kaliya Mardan<\/td><td>Featured his daughter Mandakini as young Krishna<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1937<\/td><td>Gangavataran<\/td><td>His only sound film<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure><p>He founded Hindustan Film Company in 1917 and made around 95 feature films and 27 short films. He died in Nashik on 16 February 1944.<\/p>\n<h2>The Dadasaheb Phalke Award<\/h2>\n<p>Instituted by the Government of India in 1969, the <b>Dadasaheb Phalke Award<\/b> is India&#8217;s highest honour in cinema, given for outstanding lifetime contribution. The first recipient was actress <b>Devika Rani<\/b>. Later winners include Raj Kapoor, Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth and Mithun Chakraborty.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Which was India&#8217;s first feature film?<\/h3>\n<p>Raja Harishchandra (1913), directed by Dadasaheb Phalke.<\/p>\n<h3>Which was India&#8217;s first sound film?<\/h3>\n<p>Alam Ara (1931), directed by Ardeshir Irani.<\/p>\n<h3>Who received the first Dadasaheb Phalke Award?<\/h3>\n<p>Devika Rani, in 1969.<\/p>\n<h2>Keep exploring<\/h2>\n<ul><li><a href=\"\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/story-of-indian-cinema\/\">The story of Indian cinema<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"\/index.php\/2026\/10\/13\/incredible-facts-about-indian-cinema\/\">Facts about Indian cinema<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/how-a-film-is-made\/\">How a film is made<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"\/index.php\/category\/cinema\/\">More Cinema articles on Tiwaripedia<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><em>Facts are based on widely accepted official, scientific and historical sources at the time of writing. Spotted something that needs updating? <a href=\"\/index.php\/contact-us\/\">Let us know<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dadasaheb Phalke biography: how he made Raja Harishchandra (1913), India&#8217;s first full-length feature film, his later films, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow_YXIDA:productID":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2274"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2487,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274\/revisions\/2487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}