Sheikh Fattelal

Sheikh Fattelal was born on October 20, 1897, as Yashin Mistri in Kagal, Maharashtra. His father was a stonemason, hence he too had a crafty hand as he trained for his realistic paintings under the famous Maharashtrian painter Abalal Rehman. When Baburao Painter decided to start filmmaking, Fattelal, at the age of 21, was one of his few trusted companions. Together they founded the Maharashtra Film Company in Kolhapur, in 1919. 

His career began working in the Maharashtra Film Company as a technician but he worked and learned several other aspects of filmmaking, like from art direction to cinematography. He debuted as a co-director in the film Karna (1928) which was a success. However, in 1929, he left the company along with his friends and proceeded to found the Prabhat Film Company, where he became the head of the Production department. The company moved to Pune in 1933 to establish its studio.

His company stood out among several others for making films on social awareness. Their film Sant Tukaram (1936), the story of a saint who rose from a common man, gained immense popularity and even won a Special Recommendation at the 5th Venice International Film Festival. Fattelal’s art direction and costumes are said to have been used for several films like Maya Machchindra (1932), Amritmanthan (1934), Amar Jyoti (1936), Kunku (1937), Aadmi (1939), Padosi (1941) and Ramshastri (1944). After the success of Sant Tukaram, they made two more saint films Sant Dnyaneshwar (1940) and Sant Sakhu (1941), which was the only saint film ever to feature a female protagonist.

Prabhat Film Company shut down in the early 50s after the death of Fattelal’s business companion, Damle in 1945. After its closure, Fattelal directed two more films Jagadguru Shankaracharya (1955) and Ayodhyapati (1956) before retiring. He passed away on January 24, 1964, at the age of 66, in Bombay. Today, on the premises of Prabhat Film Company, stands the Film and Television Institute of India and even has a museum which displays all the original artefacts and costumes the company had used in its lifetime.