India’s first feature film Raja Harishchandra will repeat history as it is set to be screened in Patna on Friday, exactly a hundred years later since its release in 1913.
“India’s first film ‘Raja Harischandra’, a silent movie, will be screened in Patna as part of an event commemorating the centenary year of the Indian cinema,” president, Cine Society, Patna, R.N. Dash told PTI.
Though cinema entered India in 1896 thanks to the efforts of Lumiere Brothers, Raja Harishchandra , an Indian cinema made by Dadasaheb Phalke was first screened at Bombay’s (now Mumbai’s) Coronation Theatre on May 3, 1913.
“We are proud to repeat the history of cinema here in our city. We will screen silent, talkies and documentaries to mark the occasion,” Dash added.
The day-long event will also see other movies being screened like Harischandrachi Factory , the Marathi biopic on Phalke.
Among others, a Films Division’s documentary 100 Years of Indian Cinema and Posterics , a non-feature film on the history of posters in Indian cinema will also be screened.
Produced by Cine Society, Patna, Posterics , a first documentary of its kind and 26-minute in duration, has already been selected for the Federation of Film Society of India (FFSI).
Cine Society Patna earlier called ‘Patna Film Society’ was co-founded by Vijaya Muley, a documentary filmmaker, film historian, writer and researcher in the late 40s and early 50s time.
Her book “From Rajahs and Yogis to Gandhi and Beyond: India in International Cinema” won the Best Book award at the 58th National Film Awards in 2010.
