153 years after his birth, looking back at Dadasaheb’s amazing life & first film

Mumbai: Indian cinema today is the most prolific film industry in the world with a broad range of content from mainstream masala entertainers to meaningful cinema, to experimental films in diverse genres and different languages.

In its 110 years, it has seen several changes on various fronts. including the creative and the technological. And everything that Indian cinema entails traces back to one man — Dadasaheb Phalke.

Phalke, who was born on this day 153 years ago, laid the foundation of Indian cinema with his first feature ‘Raja Harishchandra’ in 1913 after getting inspired by the French silent short film ‘The Life of Christ’, which presented the life of Jesus in 25 tableaux based on the canonical gospels.