Celebrating Dadasaheb Phalke’s 145th birth anniversary, we thought of lining up a few lesser known facts about the man who gave Bollywood to India. While it was his vision that entertains us even today, did you know that…
l Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema got inspired to make movies when he happened to see a film on Jesus Christ in the year 1911.
l Amongst the many things that Dadasaheb Phalke was, he was a son of a Sanskrit scholar, a student of Art. He also studied architecture and was a landscape painter. He later also worked as a portrait photographer and assisted a German illusionist.
l Not only did he give away all his savings but also his life insurance to a friend to acquire enough money for a trip to Europe to acquire equipments and more to make his film. l Phalke made Rajaharishchandra in the year 1913. l Even prostitutes refused to work with him, as being a part of cinema was considered a social taboo!
l Some of the films Phalke made were as follows Mohini Bhasmasur (1913),Satyavan Savitri (1914), Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janam (1918) and Kaliya Madan (1919). Later in 1937 he produced Gangavataram (1937).
l Today he is considered as a pioneer of Indian cinema and a prestigious Indian film industry award is named after him but the fact remains that the man who gave us cinema died forgotten and penniless.
