Hiralal Sen ( bn, হীরালাল সেন, ''Hiralal Shen''; 2 August 1868 – 26 October 1917) is generally considered one of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

's first

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

s. In 1903, he filmed the popular Alibaba and Forty Thieves, the first full-length Indian film. A noted photographer, he is also credited with creating India's first

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

s and quite possibly India's first political film. A fire in 1917 destroyed all of his films.

Early life

Hiralal Sen's native home was in ''Bagjuri'', a village in

Manikganj Manikganj is a district situated in Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. Manikganj is one of the green and pollution free towns in Bangladesh. The recent urbanization and highway built joining Dhaka and Shingair Upazilla has given it an outstanding road ...

, approximately 80 km from

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

, the present-day capital of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Although he was the son of a successful lawyer of a

Baidya Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. Baidyas, a caste (''jāti'') of Ayurvedic physicians, have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, b ...

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

'' family of that region, he grew up in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. In 1898, a film troupe en route to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

screened a certain Professor Stevenson's short film along with the stage show, ''The Flower of Persia'' at the

Star Theatre A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...

in Calcutta. Borrowing Stevenson's camera, Sen made his first film, "A Dancing Scene" from the opera ''The Flower of Persia''. With assistance from his brother, Motilal Sen, he bought an

Urban Bioscope The Urban Bioscope, also known as the Warwick Bioscope was a film projector developed by Walter Isaacs in 1897 for Charles Urban of the Warwick Trading Company. The projector used a beater movement. It has two names because it was created by Charle ...

from

Charles Urban Charles Urban (April 15, 1867 – August 29, 1942) was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War. He was a pioneer of the documentary, educational, propag ...

Warwick Trading Company The Warwick Trading Company was a British film production and distribution company, which operated between 1898 and 1915. History The Warwick Trading Company had its origins in the London office of Maguire and Baucus, a firm run by two American ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In the following year, with his brother, he formed the

Royal Bioscope The Royal Bioscope Company was the first film production company in Bengal, and possibly the first in India, set up in 1898 by Hiralal Sen, along with Matilal Sen, Deboki Lal Sen, and Bholanath Gupta. The initial productions used an Urban ...

company.

Filmmaking career

In a creative career that extended up to 1913, Hiralal Sen made over forty short films. Most of the films he made depicted scenes from theatrical productions played at Amarendra Dutta's

Classic Theatre A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...

in Calcutta. At that time raw

was imported into the country. Between 1901 and 1904, he produced many films for Classic Theatre including ''Bhramar'', ''Hariraj'', and ''Buddhadev''. His longest film, produced in 1903 and titled ''Alibaba and the Forty Thieves'', was also based on an original Classic Theatre performance. However, not much is known about this

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

since it was never screened. He also produced a number of advertising films and newsfilms taking commissions. Having made two films advertising Jabakusum Hair Oil and Edwards Tonic, he became the first Indian to use film for advertising purposes.

India's first political film

In 1905, Sen advertised a "genuine Swadeshi film of our own make". Documenting the "Anti-

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

Demonstration and

Swadeshi movement The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement and contributed to the development of Indian nationalism. Before the BML Government's decision for the partition of Bengal was made public in ...

at the Town Hall, Calcutta, on the 22nd September 1905", it is, according to critic

Samik Bandyopadhyay Samik Bandyopadhyay (Bengali: শমীক বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়; born 1940) is a Kolkata-based critic of Indian art, theatre and film. His father Sunit Kumar Banerjee did his Ph.D. on Elizabethan lyrics under Sir H.&nb ...

, India's first political film.

Last film made

made its last film in 1913.

Filmography

Later years

Hiralal Sen's later years were filled with disappointment and economic hardship.

Jamshedji Framji Madan Jamshedji Framji Madan (27 April 1857, Bombay – 28 June 1923), professionally known as J. F. Madan, was an Indian theatre and film magnate who was one of the pioneers of film production in India, an early exhibitor, distributor and producer of ...

of the

Elphinstone Bioscope Company Madan Theatre Company, also known as Madan Theatres Limited or Madan Theatres in short, was a film production company founded by Jamshedji Framji Madan, one of the pioneers of Indian Cinema. History Madan, a young Parsi businessman, who had expe ...

had long surpassed him in terms of success. To compound his misery, he was also suffering from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. A few days before his death in 1917, a fire broke out destroying every film he ever made.

In popular culture

in 2021, A film named 'Hiralal' has made on his life starring Kinjal Nanda.

Notes

External links

*
"Remembering Hiralal Sen"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Hiralal 1866 births 1917 deaths Bengali film directors Bengali film producers Indian documentary filmmakers 20th-century Indian film directors Indian silent film producers People from Dhaka