Raja Harishchandra

A king gives away his kingdom, his wife and his son to keep a promise, and Indian cinema begins with a man who will not lie. Dadasaheb Phalke had seen a Life of Christ in a Bombay cinema and decided India should have its own; no actress would take the part, so men play the women. About forty minutes survive, in fragments, the river scene among them. Bombay, 1913.