3 May 1913 was a momentous day for what was then Bombay. One imagines the city grappling with the sweltering summer heat, but that didn’t stop people from queuing up for tickets at the Coronation Theatre in Girgaon to catch the first public show of India’s first feature film, Raja Harishchandra. The approximately 50-minute long silent film came with a film length of 3700ft (in four reels) and Marathi title cards. It was directed by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke - better known today as Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema.

Raja Harishchandra recounts the well-known mythology of a king who refuses to lie or deviate from his principles even when faced with the most extreme adversities, engineered to test his character by the sage Vishwamitra.