Father of Indian cinema turns 150

Blame it on coronavirus or the two major jolts suffered by the major film industry in Mumbai in the form of the deaths of Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor, a major event has gone relatively unnoticed in the movie circles of India. April 30 happens to be the 150th birth anniversary of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema.

The Wikipedia note details his life thus: 'His debut film, Raja Harishchandra, was the first Indian movie in 1913, and is now known as India's first full-length feature film. He made 95 feature-length films and 27 short films in his career, spanning 19 years, until 1937, including his most noted works: Mohini Bhasmasur (1913), Satyavan Savitri (1914), Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janma (1918) and Kaliya Mardan (1919)'.

The Award instituted in his name to commemorate the lifelong contribution to cinema turned 50 last year, as it was instituted by the Government of India in 1969. Interestingly, the first awardee was a lady film actress – Devika Rani – in 1969, hailed as the 'first lady of Indian cinema'. The 11 prominent film personalities from southern cinema who were awarded in these five decades were: B N Reddy (1974), Paidi Jairaj (1980), L V Prasad (1982), B Nagi Reddy (1986), Akkineni Nageswara Rao (1990), Rajkumar (1995), Sivaji Ganesan (1996), Adoor Gopalakrishnan (2004), D Rama Naidu (2009), K Balachander (2010) and K Viswanath (2016)