RetroClips

Raja Harishchandra is widely considered India's first feature film, and this is a rare surviving fragment of it: the National Film Archive of India holds only pieces of the first and last reels. Director Dadasaheb Phalke could not find a single woman willing to appear on camera, since acting was considered indecent for women in 1913 Bombay, even actresses he approached refused, so he cast a man, Anna Salunke, to play the queen, making Salunke India's first credited screen actress. Phalke's legacy is now honored every year through the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in cinema.