Dadasaheb Torne

Dadasaheb Torne Biography

Ramchandra Gopal Dadasaheb Torne was the first Indian to make a film. He released ‘Shree pundalik’ on 18 May 1912. But he couldn’t win the credit of India’s first feature as ‘Shree pundalik’ missed a few criteria to call it a feature film. Thus the credit of first Indian director goes to Dadasaheb Phalke, who released the Marathi movie - Raja Harischandra exactly one year later on 3^rd May 1913. Raja Harischandra is 40 minutes long and ‘Shree pundalik’ with 22 minutes length was too short to call as a feature film. The movie was also not processed in India. Thus the credit of Father of Indian Cinema went to Phalke, though it can’t be denied the fact that Torne’s contributions too, own a significant value.

Ramchandra Gopal Torne was born on 13 April 1890 in Malwan village near Mumbai. When he lost his father, his uncle got rid of him and his mother and thus childhood days of Torne were spent in poverty and miseries. He was only 10 years then and lost his education too. Later he was employed by the Cotton Green Electrical Company, where he learned basic electrical installation and instrument repair. During this time, he got attached to theatre plays. When he saw foreign films released in Mumbai, he too thought of making a movie. He was only 21 or 22 when he got attached to the desire of film making. This venture was financed by a friend and the movie was finally released in 1912 thus making it a historic moment for India. He was working in Greaves Cotton Company while the movie was released.

Later Torne started his own company, Saraswati Cinetone in Pune and the first movie released was Sham Sundar. This movie is recorded as the first silver jubilee hit of Indian cinema. He has also introduced many noted artists to film world. Heroine Zubeida is one such noted name.

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Updated: January 24, 2014