Born on April 30, 1870 at Tryambakeshwar,
The turning point in his life came when he saw a silent film and was deeply moved by its poignancy.He decided to become a filmmaker and viewed it as his mission. His first full length Indian motion picture, ‘Raja Harishchandra’, the most important milestone in Indian cinematic history.For making this movie he had to take loan from his wife,who sold her jwellery for fullfilling her husband"s dream.
He was a visionary who foresaw the potential of the film medium and also made people realize its cultural and financial worth.His first film Raja Harishchand was publicly shown on May 3, 1913 at Mumbai's Coronation Cinema. It was an unbelievable experience for public and he received much appreciation for his work The film was a huge success which encouraged many businessmen to produce more films
In his 19 years of film making career, he made 95 movies and 26 short films. His other motion picture works include ‘Rajrishi Ambarish’ (1922), ‘Ram Maruti Yuddha’ (1923), ‘Guru Dronacharya’ (1923), ‘Ashwathama’ (1923), ‘Shivajichi Agryahun Sutaka’ (1924), ‘Satyabhama’ (1925), ‘Ram Rajya Vijay’ (1926), ‘Bhakta Pralhad’ (1926), ‘Hanuman Janma’ (1927), ‘Draupadi Vashtraharan’ (1927),‘Parshuram’ (1928), ‘Sant Mirabai’ (1929) and ‘Kabir Kamal’ (1930).
In 1937, he directed his first sound film ‘Gangavataran’ which also proved to be the last film of his career. With the introduction of sound in cinema and the new diversified ways of filmmaking, his work lost admiration and eventually he took retirement from filmmaking.
