Dadasaheb Torne

Advertisement in the Times of India of 25 May 1912 announcing the screening of the first feature film of India, Pundalik

Ram Chandra Gopal "Dadasaheb" Torne रामचंद्र गोपाळ "दादासाहेब" तोरणे (13 April 1890 - 19 January 1960) was the first Indian to make an Indian language feature film, as established by an advertisement in the Times of India newspaper of 25 May 1912.

Although Torne made his first film (Pundalik पुंडलिक, 1912) just under a year before Dhundiraj Govind "Dadasaheb" Phalke made his, it is the latter who is regarded as the father of Indian cinema. The distinction may lie with the fact that, unlike Phalke, Torne sent his film overseas for processing. Moreover, Torne's Pundalik was only 1,500' (c. 22 minutes) long, about 1,200' shorter than Phalke's Raja Harischandra, which ran for about 40 minutes.

Biography

Early years

Ram Chandra Gopal Torne was born on 13 April 1890 in Sukulwad village, on the Western Indian Konkan coast near Mumbai. Following his father's death, the young boy and his mother were asked to leave the house by his uncle and they were forced to live in poverty.

At the age of 10 or 11, and with only four years of formal education behind him, Torne dropped out of school and headed to Mumbai. Once there, he was employed by the Cotton Green Electrical Company, where he learned basic electrical installation and instrument repair.

Career

First film

This is where he got in touch with the "Shripad" theater company. He was quite impressed by the plays conducted by this company as well as the new foreign films which were being released that time in Mumbai. As a young boy of 21-22, he got interested in making his own movie. With another friend and financer, Mr.Chitre, he managed to import raw film and movie camera from abroad, he recorded the play by name "Shri Pundalik". Thus the movie was named "Pundalik". It was released on 18 May 1912 in Mumbai's coronation movie theater. Almost one year after this movie was released, the official father of Indian cinema, Mr.Dadasaheb Phalke released his movie in the same theater on 3 May 1913. The movie "Pundalik" continued in Mumbai for about 2 weeks. The advertisement for the second week was "Half of the Mumbai population has seen it, the remaining half should also see it".

The movie "Pundalik" was a recording of a play. That time the camera used to be fixed on one platform and was a very heavy opto-mechanical-electrical instrument. So only "one angle" movie recording was possible. There was no concept of editing or close up shots etc. After watching the recorded movie Dadasaheb was not happy with the overall performance and the effect it was giving. So he decided to record it in parts and then join the film together. This is the job now professionally done by the film "Editor" and is an important job in the entire movie industry today. Many effects will be ineffective if the Editor does not do his job properly. For example in a standard recorded fight scenes, there are at least 36 different shots shown in the span of 30 seconds. Dadasaheb was an original Director, Special effects person, Editor, Sound Recordist etc. and was a master of many other techniques now commonly used in the modern movie-making. It is sad that such a prodigy was not appreciated very much in the public due to his low-key or low profile nature.

Film production and distribution company

Dadasaheb Torne was working in Greaves Cotton company when this movie was released. The Cotton Greaves company transferred him, to Karachi. He caught another young man there, by the name, Mr.Baburao Pai and started releasing various Hollywood movies in Karachi. For this he opened offices in Karachi and other places. He is the first Indian to open the distribution offices and a Movie distribution company! In the next 3–4 years, he spent with Mr. Baburao Painter in Kolhapur. After coming back to Mumbai he started his own "Movie Camera Company". Due to the first world war in Europe, he established contacts in the United States of America. He started importing all the relevant instruments required for the movie industry, like cameras, film etc. etc. This company turned out to be a big boon to the film makers of that time, and immediately became the buzz-word. All his efforts eventually paid off and many new movie companies were soon formed. Around 1929, with his colleague, Mr. Baburao Pai, he started a joint venture company, "FAMOUS PICTURES". This movie distribution company created history and made Crores of rupee business in that era, right from the Silent Movies to the Talkies!

Torne and Ardeshir Irani

The "Famous Pictures" had started already importing the Hollywood movies, some of them were talkies! This was a big revolution for the film industry. Additionally there was a new technology involved in it. Realizing the importance of the talkies, Dadasaheb Torne saw that the talkies were fast becoming popular day by day. With his foresight he bought the agency of the Talkie-Machinery and with the help of Americans, he learnt how to use it. Few years before while working in the Royal Art Studio of Mumbai, he had met Mr. Ardeshir Irani. He advised Mr. Irani to start his own Studio (the famous Jyoti Studio) and a Movie-production Company (the Imperial Film Company). Irani appointed Dadasaheb as a manager at both the places. Later, on Dadasaheb's advice, Irani formed another company out of the unit of Imperial Film company, the Sagar Film Company. Around this time, Dadasaheb directed two films: Sindabad the Sailor (1930) and Dilbar (1931). Both were silent movies. Next he again advised Mr. Irani to make a talkie! They had now all the machinery required for the production and taught the technicians in the Imperial Company, how to use it. The work on Alam Ara was kept a big secret! Within a span of two months, history was created : on 14 March 1931, India's first Talkie Alam Ara was released in the Majestic Cinema Theater.

There was an overhelming response to Alam Ara. After this success, he immediately supplied the machinery to Prabhat, Ranajit, Wadia etc. studios. These studios started making new talkies. The end of silent movies had come. The scene now was completely different.

Later productions

The time had come now to stop working under others or under their supervision for Dadasaheb. He decided to form his own company now. In Pune near Shankarshet Road, he formed his own company by the name "Saraswati Cinetone" (सरस्वती सिनेटोन). The first movie of this company was "Sham Sundar". The First Silver Jubilee Movie of the Indian Film Industry! The movie turned out to be legendary. It introduced two young artists: Shahu Modak and Shanta Apte. Chintamanrao Modak, the famous sound recordist and Baapurao Ketkar, the famous Music director started their career from this movie. The second movie of the company was "Aout Ghatakecha Raja" which introduced Master Viththal (later became famous as Indian Douglas) as the director. The first Double Role in Indian Movie was introduced in this movie! The third movie was "Bhakta Pralhaad" which had tremendous amount of trick photography, that became quite famous. He had a mastery of the lens use and several optical effects were created! The special effects were appreciated by Indian as well as Foreign technicians. He was a pioneer in many respects. He introduced many things first in the film industry. Many talented artists like, Mehboob (Mehboob Studio) , Kardar, Bhalaji Pendharkar, Vishram Bedekar, R. S. Chowdhary, C. Ramchandra, Jayashree, Ratnamaalaa (Dada Kondke's "Aaye") and Alam Ara heroine Zubeida were first introduced by him. He made several movies later: Thaksen Rajputra, Chhatrapati Sambhaji, Krishnashishtai, Savitri, Raja Gopichand, Narad Naradi, Bhagva Zenda, Mazi Ladki, Navardev etc. He made 17 movies: 3-Hindi, 8-Marathi and remaining 6-Hindi+Marathi. A documentary film "Akshar-Olakh" was produced for the "Saksharata Prasar Mandal". This film was produced more as a Social commitment rather than for entertainment or business. The last movie of Saraswati Cinetone was "Aawaj", released on 22 May 1942 starring Maya Banerji, Swarnalata and Waasti.

Final years

Most of these movies and their sole copies were burnt. He had built a studio in Pune , where now Chakan Oil Mill stands. In 1947, when he had gone out of town for some work, his colleague and friend, stole all the Movie-Cameras and other expensive equipment and took it to Pakistan. The religious fanaticism won over the decades old friendship. This shook him badly and had his first heart attack in 1947. But his mother helped him come out of this agony and loss. His career was now over after such a blow from someone he knew and worked with for several decades. In his later years he had retired from the Industry and as it is the industry was now changing its colors and ways quite rapidly. The movie Shamsundar had given him the financial stability and he lived in his house "Chandrika" (name of his mother) at Shivajinagar. He died there on the morning of 19 January 1960 in his sleep.

Cinematography

No.	Name of production	Year	Language	Participation
1	Pundalik	1912	Silent	Producer / Director
2	Sati ka Shaap (Curse of Sati)	1923	Silent	Assistant Producer
3	Prithvivallabh	1924	Silent	Assistant Producer
4	Neera	1926	Silent	Assistant Director
5	Sindabad Khalasi (Sindabad the Sailor)	1930	Silent	Story/Director
	Talkies
6	Shamsundar	1932	Hindi/Marathi	Producer / Sound Recordist
7	Aout Ghatakecha Raja	1933	Marathi	Producer / Sound Recordist
	Aawara Shahjada	1933	Hindi	Producer / Sound Recordist
8	Bhakta Pralhad	1933	Hindi/Marathi	Producer / Manager /Sound Recordist
9	Chhatrapati Sambhaji	1934	Marathi	Producer
10	Thakasen Rajputra	1934	Marathi	Producer / Director
	Bhedi Rajkumar	1934	Hindi	Producer / Director
11	Krishna-Shishtai (Krishna's Negotiations)	1935	Hindi	Producer
12	Savitri	1936	Marathi	Producer / Sound Recordist
13	Raja Gopichand	1938	Hindi/Marathi	Producer / Editor
14	Sach Hai	1939	Hindi	Producer
15	Bhagwa Zenda	1939	Marathi	Producer
16	Mazi Ladaki (My Beloved)	1939	Marathi	Producer / Director
17	Devayani	1940	Marathi	Producer
18	Narad-Naradi	1941	Marathi	Producer / Director
19	Navardev (Bridegroom)	1941	Marathi	Producer / Director
20	Aawaj (Sound)	1942	Hindi	Producer

References

• Garga, B. D. (1996), So Many Cinemas: The Motion Picture in India, Mumbai: Eminence, OCLC 35263166 
• Thoraval, Yves (2000), The Cinemas of India, New Delhi: Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-93410-4 
• Kinikar, Shashikant (2007), Bharatiya Chitrapatsrishtiche Adya Pravartak Dadasaheb Tornay, Kolhapur: Paras Publications, OCLC 176649191