[2][3] His father, Govind Sadashiv Phalke alias Dajishastri, was a Sanskrit scholar and worked as a Hindu priest conducting religious ceremonies and his mother, Dwarkabai, was a housewife.

In 1891, Phalke did a six-months course to learn the techniques of preparing half-tone blocks, photo-lithio, and three-colour ceramic photography.

[8] Principal Gajjar of Kala Bhavan sent Phalke to Ratlam to learn three-colour blockmaking, photolitho transfers, colotype and darkroom printing techniques under the guidance of Babulal Varuvalkar.

At the end of 1901, Phalke began to hold the public performances of magic using professional name of Professor Kelpha with letters of his last name in reverse order.

[20] On 14 April 1911, Phalke with his elder son Bhalchandra went to see a film, Amazing Animals, at the America India Picture Palace,[21] Girgaon, Bombay.

As it was Easter, the theatre screened a film about Jesus, The Life of Christ (1906) by the French director Alice Guy-Blaché instead.

[23][22] While watching Jesus on the screen, Phalke envisioned Hindu deities Rama and Krishna instead and decided to start in the business of "moving pictures".

[22] For the next one year, Phalke started collecting various film related material like catalogues, books, and movie making equipment from Europe.

He bought a small film camera and reels and started showing movies at night, by focusing candle light on a lens and projecting the pictures on the wall.

Ophthalmologist Dr. Prabhakar treated Phalke with the aid of three or four pairs of spectacles which helped him restore the eye sight.

Cabourn advised Phalke against the idea of filmmaking in India based on the unsuccessful attempts in England and suggested that the Indian climate might not be suitable as well.

However, he was impressed with Phalke's dedication and introduced him to the film director, producer, and screenwriter Cecil Hepworth of Walton Studios.

At the advice of Cabourn and Hepworth, he bought Williamson camera for fifty pounds and placed an order for Kodak raw film and a perforator.

Imported filmmaking equipment reached Bombay in May 1912 and Phalke set it up within four days with the help of sketch provided.

To test the working of camera and projector, Phalke filmed the boys and girls in the surroundings to the satisfactory results.

He shot one frame a day for over a month producing a film just over one minute, of the seed growing, sprouting, and changing into a climber.

[35] Dattatraya Damodar Dabke played the lead role of King Harishchandra and Anna Salunke as Queen Taramati.

[36] Phalke was in-charge of the scriptment, direction, production design, make-up, editing, and film processing and Trymbak B. Telang handled the camera.

Durgabai Kamat was cast as Parvati and her daughter Kamlabai Gokhale as Mohini and became first women to act in the Indian cinema.

[50][51][52] On returning to India, Phalke noticed that the financial condition had worsened due to ongoing World War I.

[55] Indian nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak tried helping Phalke through Paisa Fund Glass Works but could not succeed.

[59] Phalke was invited for the session of the "Bombay Provincial Congress Parishad" held at Nashik in May 1917 where Lokmanya Tilak made an appeal to help him and also visited his studio at the request of G. S.

[60] The appeal made by Tilak had desired effect and Phalke could collect sufficient capital to start a new film, Lanka Dahan.

[63] When the film was screened at the West End Cinema, Bombay, the shows were held from 7 A.M. to 3 A.M. next morning and it collected ₹32,000 in ten days.

[64][65] According to film historian Amrit Gangar, the coins collected from the ticket counters were transported in gunny bags on bullock carts.

Among all the received offers, Phalke accepted the proposal of five Bombay-based textile industrialists which included Waman Shreedhar Apte, Laxman Balwant Phatak, Mayashankar Bhatt, Madhavji Jesingh, and Gokuldas Damodar.

After unsuccessful attempts to resolve the differences, the partners approached Phalke's colleagues to take over his responsibilities, in case of his exit.

[75] Phalke also read out the play to Bal Gangadhar Tilak and G. S. Khaparde who were attending the All India Congress Committee's session held at Kashi.

An honorary award from the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Mumbai was introduced in the year 2001, for lifetime achievement in Indian cinema.

[87] In 2009, the Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory, which was directed by theatre veteran Paresh Mokashi and depicts Dadasaheb Phalke's struggle in making Raja Harishchandra in 1913.