The date was May 3, 1913, and the location was the Coronation Cinema on Sandhurst Road in the Girgaon section of Bombay, India. The event was the screening of the film Raja Harishchandra by Director and Producer Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke. This would be the first full-length Indian feature film. One print was made for this screening but because of the success that day many more prints were made to show the film in rural areas and thus the Indian film industry was born.
To celebrate the 100 years of the Indian film industry the Selig Polyscope Company and Selig Film News is proud to present the surviving scenes of Raja Harishchandra. The film was originally in 4 parts on 3700 feet of film. Only the first and last parts have been salvaged so far by the National Film Archive of India in Pune.
One hundred years later India cinema is one of the largest film industries in the world, producing more than 1300 films in 2012. Here is to another 100 years! Enjoy the film!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jwFoLClWao
The video is part of the India Public Domain Movie Project and can be found at the link below.
http://www.cuttingthechai.com/category/movies/india-public-domain-movie-project/
