Hiralal Sen(1868-1917)
- Director
Hiralal Sen is known as the first film maker in the Indian
sub-continent. He was born in Manikgonj near Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was
the son of a famous lawyer and from a Zamindar family. He grew up in
Kolkata. In 1898, a film troupe en route to Paris screened a certain
Professor Stevenson's short film along with the stage show, The Flower
of Persia at the Star Theatre 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 from Charles Urban's Warwick Trading Company
in London. In the following year, with his brother, he formed the Royal
Bioscope company.
