Prabhat Film Company is a renowned film studio that was the creator of brilliant films during the 1930s and 1940s. It was established in Kolhapur as a partnership firm, with five partners from Baburao Painter’s Maharashtra Film Company – V. Shantaram, Vishnupant Damle, S. Fattelal, Keshavrao Dhaiber and Sitarampant Kulkarni. Prabhat moved its studio from Kolhapur to Pune in 1933.
This new studio had the largest stage floor, one of the finest art departments, well–equipped sound and editing departments and its own laboratory.
They made memorable films such as Amritmanthan (1934), Sant Tukaram ( 1937 ), Kunku /Duniya Na Mane ( 1937 ), Manoos / Aadmi ( 1939 ), Shejari / Padosi ( 1944 ).
Prabhat Film Company was established by Sitaram Kulkarni, K. Dhaiber, S. Fatehlal, Vishnupant Damle and V. Shantaram in Kolhapur on June 1, 1929. It folded up in 1959. It has a rich legacy that survives even today. In 1942, V. Shantaram left Prabhat. In 1945, Vishnupant Damle passed away. In 1957, S. H. Kelkar bought the Company. In 1959, Prabhat was sold by Kelkar to Indian government. In 1961, The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) was set up at the premises of Prabhat in Pune. In 1969, Anant Damle buys the right of all Prabhat Films productions from one Mudaliyar.
The Damle family starts the project in 1969 to preserve the legacy of Prabhat. They are digitising 18 short films/documentaries that Prabhat produced during 1933 to 1949.
Prabhat’s film Sant Tukaram was awarded as one of the best films in the world in 1936 at the Venice Film Festival. It created many records. It was the first film to run continuously for 57 weeks. In 1941, Sant Dhyaneshwar was the first film to be screened in the USA.
It closed down in 1953. But from the premises emerged in its new avtar – the Film Institute of India in 1961. The institute FTII set up a Prabhat Museum on Law College Road, Pune as a tribute to its predecessor – the Prabhat Studio. It displays artefacts, photographs and documents of a bygone and glorious era of film making in Maharashtra and India. It also has a number of props used in those days.
Prabhat is evergreen at 90(2019).