Baburao Painter

Baburao Painter Biography

Baburao Painter was a film director. He was one of the leading stage painters for West Indian theatres during 1910’s. That’s how he got the name Baburao Painter. He later became associated with film field and has acted, scripted and directed a few movies. Surekha Haran (1921), the debut film of V. Shantaram happened to be the directorial debut of Baburao too. He acted in Kalyan Khajina (1924) and Sinhagad (1923) and both these movies won a medal at the Wembley Exhibition, London also. He has also worked as the art director of 1935 movie, Usha and its second part. He wrote the script of Sairandhri (1920), where he acted as the cinematographer also. He found Maharashtra Film Company in 1919.

He was born Baburao Krishnarao Mestry in 1890 in Kolhapur. He was a self learnt painter and later came to be known by the same time. He and his artist cousin Anandrao Painter between 1910 and 1916 were the leading painters of stage backdrops in Western India. They together later bought a movie projector and exhibited films. While studying the art of films, they got interested in film making.  While assembling a camera for their maiden venture, Anandrao’s unexpected death in 1916 prompted Baburao to carry on the project alone. Two years later, Baburao became successful to assemble a camera under the guidance of V.G. Damle.

He founded Maharashtra Film Company in 1919 borrowing money from a film admirer, Tanibai Kagolkar. Baburao's first feature film was Sairandri (1920). This episode from the Mahabharata telling the story of Bhima and Keechaka was heavily censored. V. Shantaram, Damle and S. Fatehlal were a part of his team who later left to set up Prabhat Film Company. A few of Baburao’s  directed movies include - Bhagwata Bhakta Damaji (1922), Vatsalaharan (1923), Shri Krishna Avatar (1924), Baji Prabhu Deshpande (1929) and Rukmini Swayamvar (1946).

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Updated: November 03, 2013