Special Feature on 551 st Birth Anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Cinema was introduced to India on 7 July 1896 , when the Lumiere brothers' show-cased six short silent films in Watson Hotel, Bombay. Dada Saheb Phalke got inspiration from an English movie ‘The Christ’ to produce a film on the life and work of Indian Gods. He made the first Indian movie “Raja Harish Chandra in 1913 and it was followed by a series of mythological silent movies like Kalia Mardan, Mohini Bhasmasur , Lanka Dahan , Shri Krishna Janma , Satyavan Savitri etc. Even after advent of talkie era, the trend of making religious/mythological films continued to attract most of the film makers. The notable films were: Ayodhaya Ka Raja, Radhey Shyam, Bhakt Surdas, Puran Bhakt, Vaman Avtar, Ram Rajya Sri Krishna Leela , Mahabharat, Sampooran Ramayan and Bharat Milap etc. The inaugural films in many regional languages were also religious offerings like Bhakta Prahlada, Ramayna etc. were produced in telugu and tami
Spotlight on Indian Cinema