Raja Harishchandra

India has a long, rich history in cinema dating even before its first feature film, May 1913's Raja Harishchandra." The country had an established movie studio by 1907, despite no film production equipment was being made in India. But it was "Raja's" release on May 3 at the Coronation Theater in Bombay, complete with a live performance of music and chanting, that marked the point where India's public embraced movies and made the film industry viable.

Dadasaheb Phalke is solely responsible for introducing cinema to India's passionate movie lovers. Known as "The Father of Indian Cinema," Phalke as a businessman had a successful career running a printing press company before getting the movie bug. He gave up his business and hocked all his family's possessions to begin a studio, focused on producing a feature film. Through a series of trials and tribulations, Phalke finally competed the 53-minute film version of the Indian mystic legend of Harishchandra's life.

Phalke's adventures in gathering cast and tech crew and filming the feature are portrayed in 2009's "Harishchandrachi Factory." The Paresh Mokashi written/directed movie was India's official Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submission for that year's Academy Awards.