The first full-length Indian feature film was made by pledging family savings

pop & funThe Public Domain Review1913 · India

The first full-length Indian feature film was made by pledging family savings

the gist

Raja Harishchandra, directed by Dadasaheb Phalke and released in 1913, is widely regarded as the first full-length Indian feature film. It is a silent, roughly 40-minute retelling of a legend from the Sanskrit epics about a king who gives up his kingdom, wife and children to keep a promise. Phalke had been inspired by a French film about Christ, and he went to London to learn filmmaking. He raised the money by pledging his life-insurance policies, and his wife sold her jewellery. Because women were unwilling to act, men played the female roles.

how it works

Phalke learned filmmaking techniques in London, including camera work and processing, then built his own equipment and studio in India. Silent films relied on intertitles in Hindi and English to carry dialogue, and hand-cranked cameras captured the action.

so what

The film founded the Indian film industry that later became Bollywood, and it showed that Indian stories could be told on screen for mass audiences. Only about 1,475 feet of it survives, so most of what we know comes from fragments and records. Phalke's work set the pattern of mythological cinema that ran for decades.

the bigger pattern

Film industries often start with a single myth-based or literary feature that gives a model for others. Hollywood's early years followed a similar path of pioneers financing films on personal risk.

fun fact

Phalke later made Lanka Dahan in 1917, in which the actor Anna Salunke played both Rama and Sita.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗