Phalke was fascinated with the film and ready to share his dream but his film was not the first Indian film. Film historians believe that Pundalik made in 1912 is probably India’s first film and Raja Harishchandra made by Phalke, the first indigenous full-length feature. The film was watched by distinguished guests at a private screening in Bombay’s Olympia Theatre on April 21 1913.
A month later, a corrected version of the film print was released commercially in Corporation Cinematograph in Bombay on May 3 1913. Over the next two decades approximately 1300 Indian silent films were made but only a few survived in the archives and it is unfortunate that we don’t have any records of milestone films like Lanka Dahan 1917 and Kalia Mardan 1919.