We are all ordinary until we do something extraordinary. Well, Anna Salunke was one such person, who did the extraordinary and unimaginable.
Anna Salunke is much of a mystery man himself since most of his early years have remained unknown to the world. It was life-changing for him when he entered the world of movies in the year 1913.
Anna Hari Salunke was the first Indian actor known to play roles of female characters – his first-ever role in a movie was to play Queen Taramati for Dadasaheb Phalke. He was called the “First Indian Actress” quite accurately. Here is an interesting anecdote of how he got this role!
In the same year, Salunke had redeemed his potential as an actor to a new height when he played both Rama and Sita in Phalke Lanka Dahan. Marvellous, isn’t it?
There were two more movies where Anna played the role of a woman. One of them was Satyanarayana in 1922, directed by V.S Nirantar and then in 1923 for Phalke’s Buddha Dev. Interestingly, Salunke also worked as a cinematographer in both these movies. In 1926, Salunke had left his acting career and focused on being a cinematographer. He shot the movie Bhakta Pralhad that was directed by Dadasaheb Phalke. Most of the movies shot by him were based on Hindu mythological themes.
His cinematographic work involved movies like Ahiravan Mahiravan Vadh, Guru Dronacharya, Ram Ravan Yuddha, Anant Vrat, Bhakta Sudama,Madalasa,Khuda Parasta , Amir Khan and many more and his last work as a cinematographer was in 1931.
Now one can only remember him through his movies…
Written by- Vibhashi Nagda
Edited by- Radhika Khandelwal