Today is the birth anniversary of the Father of Indian Cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke. He was an Indian producer, screenwriter and director, who laid the foundation of Indian cinema. It is because of the seeds sown by Phalke that the film fraternity is reaping benefits now and the Hindi film industry is being recognized outside the country. According to his horoscope, he was born as Dhundiraj Govind Phalke on 30 April 1870 in a Marathi family at Tryambakeshwar, about 30 kilometers from Nasik, Maharashtra. His father was an accomplished sanskrit scholar. From the young age itself, Phalke was very keen about creative arts and that eventually made him to choose Sir J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai in 1885. In 1890, he joined Kala Bhavan in Baroda to learn sculpture, engineering, painting, and photography.
Initially, he was a small town photographer but left that profession post his first wife and child's death. Then, he worked as a draftsman with the Archeological Survey of India. Because of his restlessness with jobs, he shifted to the printing business. Dadasaheb Phalke was specialized in oleograph and lithography and even worked for the great artist, Raja Ravi Varma. Later, he set up his own printing press and went to Germany, to learn about the latest technology and machinery.Following a dispute about his printing business, he turned his focus to moving pictures after watching a silent film titled, The Life of Christ. This motivated him to make his first film, Raja Harishchandra in 1912 which was shown publicly in1913 at Mumbai's Coronation Cinema, thus leading to the beginning of the Indian film industry.
This celebrity, started a film company called Hindustan Films with five businessmen as partners. Phalke created a model studio, trained actors and technicians but faced problems with his partners that had no scope of getting resolved. In 1920, he announced his retirement from cinema, resigned from Hindustan Films and wrote the play, Rangbhoomi. As the film company faced losses, he was asked to return. However, he made few films and then withdrew. He became the victim of the emerging sound technology. Setubandhan was his last silent film in 1932 and in 1937, he produced his last film, Gangavataran. On 16th February 1944, he died. In 2009, the Marathi film, Harishchandrachi Factory that depicted the struggle of Phalke during his first film making, was chosen as India's official entry to the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
The Indian Government has instituted the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, which is the most prestigious award in Indian cinema, awarded annually to personalities for their lifetime contribution to cinema. Dadasaheb Phalke was born under the Taurus zodiac sign and was a person with various desirable qualities. He was creative, sensitive and practical person who believed in following his dreams and make them come true. Recently, I shared Lillete Dubey's horoscope.
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