Shiv Sena wants Bharat Ratna for Dadasaheb Phalke

New Delhi: Shiv Sena today demanded conferring of the country’s highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna on the Father of Indian Cinema Dadasaheb Phalke posthumously to show “least gratitude” to the great man.

Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour, Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena) said, “My party thinks this great man (Dhundiraj Govind Phalke), pioneer of Indian film industry, deserves to be honoured with Bharat Ratna Award.”

Lamenting that Dadasaheb who gave a world of dreams to people and added glamour to their lives through Indian cinema, has been “conveniently forgotten” and not given “due respect”, Raut said, the most appropriate time to pay respect to him would be in 2013 when Indian cinema completes 100 years.

People who never contributed in the building of India were bestowed with big memorials and statues simply as they were linked to big political families, he rued, adding, “Their memorials were built at Rajghat…But people like Dadasaheb remained neglected.”

Elaborating the contribution of Phalke to the thriving Indian cinema, he said his first film Raja Harishchandra was released in 1913 and “he made 95 movies and 26 short films in his 19 years career span.”

He said it is a matter of pride that Indian cinema has completed 100 years and transported people to a different world, away from problems of day to day life.

There is substance in the dialogue of Dirty Picture that there are only three things in the world - “entertainment, entertainment and entertainment,” he said. He also demanded that the Government should issue a postal stamp, commemorating 100 years of Indian cinema.

PTI