Google, on Monday, 30 April, celebrated iconic Indian filmmaker Dadasaheb Phalke’s 148th birth anniversary with a doodle. Fondly known as the Father of Indian Cinema, Phalke directed India’s first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra.
The doodle, designed by artist Aleesha Nandhra, pictures a young Dadasaheb in action with a few scenes from his movies.
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, aka Dadasaheb, was born in Trimbakeshwar, near Nashik, in Maharashtra, on 30 April 1870. From a young age, he showed keen inclination towards the arts. Owing to this, he first joined Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai and later Kala Bhavan at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, where he studied photography, architecture, lithography, and engineering. He even pursued magic as an avocation. Over the next few years he worked as a photographer, draftsman for the Archaeological Survey of India, lithographer, and owned and ran a printing press.