Indian cinema came a full circle in Rashtrapati Bhavan when the film “Harishchandrachi Factory”, which depicts the struggles of father of cinema Dadasaheb Phalke and this year’s official entry to Oscar, was screened for the President of India Pratibha Patil.

For the debutant Indian director Paresh Mokashi it was an honour as his struggle in making a film on Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke, was no less than that of his subject. Mokashi had to mortgage his house to produce the Marathi movie.

The 75-year-old President, dressed in an off-white sari with blue border, remained glued to the screen at the three-year-old auditorium in Rashtrapati Bhavan when the movie which is paying a long overdue homage to Dadasaheb Phalke, the man who brought cinema to India, was screened last evening.

“Other than being a really good film, what’s special about ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ is the fact that it goes back to where it all began.

“Nobody had earlier given a thought about making a film about the man who began the world’s largest film industry,” said Patil after a special screening of the film.

Patil enjoyed the screening, laughing at the histrionics of the actors and discussing the finer points of film making with Mokashi, who was present along with the cast.

For Mokashi, a theatre-veteran, it was a moment of pride and honor when he received appreciation for the work from none other than the President herself.

“The President enjoyed the film and she appreciated our work. That’s a great honor. She was sitting next to me during the screening and wanted to know about how I shot certain sequences. The interest shown by her was amazing,” Mokashi said.

The struggles of the director began when he was unable to find any producer for financing the movie as everyone wanted it to be in Hindi language. Pushed to the wall, Mokashi mortgaged his home with his family standing in complete support to him.

Mokashi said the reason behind making a movie on Phalke was to educate the masses about the person, in whose name the biggest Indian cinema award, Dada Saheb Phalke, has been instituted.

The cast of the movie, including Nandu Madhav who plays Phalke and Vibhawari Deshpande, who plays his wife Saraswati Bai were felicitated by the President along with Mokashi, noted theatre and film actor Mohan Agashe and the film’s producers Neelam Kapoor and Amit Bajaj.