We all know and revere Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra (1913) as India's first feature film. However, a silent film called Shree Pundalik had already been released in Mumbai on May 18 of the prior year as per noted researcher Manohar Purandare.
The shooting script for Pundalik was written by R. B. Kirtikar, and the film was jointly produced by Nanabhai Chitre and Ramchandra Torne. The trio also featured in the film as actors. A Delhi-based film distributor P. R. Tipnis and an amateur theatre club called Patankar Friends & Company also lent invaluable support.
Camera and other equipment were sourced from the Mumbai office of the Bourne and Shepherd film company, and the film was shot in a by lane called Do Hatti (Two Elephants) on Lamington road, which is today a popular grey market for electronic goods and peripherals. The exact shoot location in Mangalwadi compound later housed the famous Naaz Cinema.
Pundalik ran successfully for two weeks at the Coronation cinema of Girgaum and was subsequently released in other theatres where it failed to draw enough crowds. In another tragedy, the sole print was destroyed in a fire. The producers went broke and Kirtikar suffered huge financial losses. Worse, these pioneers of cinema didn't find any mention in the annals of Indian cinema.
A few critics believe Pundalik cannot be regarded as a film as it was a photographic recording of a musical play based on the life and times of a Marathi saint, nor can it be hailed as an Indian film given that the cameraman Johnson was a British national, and that the film was processed in England.
Notwithstanding what the critics believe, this surely seemed like a sincere attempt at film making which deserves rich accolades, at least in hindsight.
Note the precise and purposeful advertisement of the film (in the picture above) - way more effective than the commotion of modern-day Bollywood movie makers, all in the name of promotion.