Shree Pundalik, which was released on 18 May 1912 at the Coronation Cinematograph, Girgaum, Mumbai, is sometimes considered the first feature-length Indian film by a minority.

[1][2][3] The government of India and most scholarly sources consider Raja Harishchandra to be the first Indian feature film, and detractors argue Pundalik was only a photographic recording of a popular play.

[4] Some writers, film critics and historians like Firoze Rangoonwalla, Arnab Jan Deka, Sanjit Narwekar have argued that Dadasaheb Torne was the father of Indian cinema, as his first directed and produced feature film Pundalik was officially released on 18 May 1912, almost one year before Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra, released on 3 May 1913.

Arnab Jan Deka published a research paper with the title Bharatiya Chalachitrar Janak Bhatawdekar aru Torne (Fathers of Indian Cinema Bhatawdekar and Torne) in the daily newspaper Dainik Asam on 27 October 1996.

[1][2][3] However, most scholarly sources agree that Raja Harishchandra, which was released nearly a year later, is more deserving of the title of the first Indian film.