Prabhat Film Company

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 ).

It closed down in 1953. But from the premises emerged 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.