Prabhat Film Company was founded on June 1, 1929, in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, by five young men, V G Damle, S Fatehlal, Keshav Rao Dhaiber, S V kulkarni and V Shantaram, after they broke away from their mentor, Baburao Painter's Maharashtra Film Company. The company moved to Pune in 1933, where it established its own studio and produced a total of 45 films in both Marathi and Hindi for over 27 years. The story of Prabhat was a glorious chapter in the history of Indian Cinema, spanning both the silent era and the early days of the Indian Talkie.
Today, the Film and Television Institute of India Pune, at Law College Road, is situated in its former premises, and houses the 'Prabhat Museum' which displays artefacts, original contracts and partnership deeds of Prabhat Film Company, along with costumes, properties, equipment, posters and stills.
Prabhat started to churn out the films. They produced Sairandhri (1933), Amrit Manthan (1934), Sant Tukaram (1936), Duniya Na Mane (1937), Aadmi (1939), Padosi (1941). All these films were very succesful and they established the name of the company. Sant Tukaram won at 5th Venice International Film Festival in 1937. This was themilestone of the Prabhat Films company. The film was directed by Damle and Fatehlal. Though the enterprising men build up the institution as the fulfilment of a common end, once it was established, 'the individuals started rating themselves above the institution which was their joint creation'.
Shantaram, the gifted film-maker whose name had become synonymous with Prabhat broke away and formed his own filmunit, Rajkamal, in 1942. Though Prabhat made a few films after that, like Ramshastri, it never quite recovered from the blow of Shantaram's departure. Damle fell ill and his health deteriorated. Finally the other disheartened partners closed shop in the late forties ringing the curtan down on an era. This was in 1953.
Major figures associated with Prabhat are composers Govindrao Tembe, Dinkar D. Patil, Keshavrao Bhole, Master Krishnarao, Vasant Desai; actresses Durga Khote, Shanta Apte, Shanta Hublikar, Vasanti, Jayashree Kamulkar; actors Bal Gandharva, Keshavrao Date, Shahu Modak. A number of notable Hindi film personalities were also associated with Prabhat Films, including Guru Dutt, Dev Anand and Rehman.
