Fali Bilimoria

Documentary filmmaker and cinematographer from the 1940s up until the 1980s, Fali Bilimoria has several well-appreciated documentaries to his credit. Born on 18 March, 1923 in Bombay, he was the son of a lawyer. Fali pursued medical studies only to quit in 1946 to shift to politics. He started his film career with Paul Zils in the late 40s and later became his partner. He was trained as a cameraman under Dr P V Pathy, an early associate of Zils. In partnership with Zils, he established Documentary Unit: India in 1947, and later the Art Films of Asia in 1952. When Zils returned to Germany, Bilimoria started his own Fali Bilimoria Productions in 1959. Bilimoria blurred the line between documentary and fiction narrative in many of his works, by introducing professional actors. This is seen in his documentary on malaria, titled A Tiny Thing Brings Death, which starred famous actor and director Sombhu Mitra. Bilimoria’s best-known films are on agricultural technology on behalf of US Technical Co-operation Missions in the context of the controversial Green Revolution promised by imported fertiliser, as well as on American Public Law 480 aid to India. He explored topics such as agricultural technology, co- operative movements in handloom, fisheries, housing, etc in his documentaries, while his clients included Shell, British Transport, Deutsche Condor, the USIS and private American sponsors. Once, he even filmed an interview with Jawaharlal Nehru to prove to the US State Department that Nehru was not a Communist. 
Among the documentaries Bilimoria directed are People of India: The Anglo Indians (1985), The Ganga Bridge (1982), The Warning Signal (1980), A Small Family (1976), There Is Another Way (1976), Women of India (1975), Look at Us Now (1974), The Last Raja (1972), The House That Ananda Built (1968), Water (1968), US Vice President Humphrey Visits India (1966), The Weavers (1965), Comparative Religions (1962), Coir Worker (1961), New Marketplace (1961), Four Families (1960), Rivers of Life (1959), The Vanishing Tribe (1959), Interview with Jawaharlal Nehru (1958), Fifty Miles from Poona (1957), Land of Bengal (1957), A Village in Travancore (1956), Iron and Steel (1956), Textiles (1956), Agriculture (1955), Ujala (1954), A Tiny Thing Brings Death (1949), Flying Goods Wagon (1949), General Motors in India (1949), The Last Jewel (1949), White Magic (1949), Congress Session 1948 (1948), Mother-Child-Community (1948), and Congress Session 1947 (1947). He also cinematographed Fifty Miles from Poona, Zalzala (1952), and Our India (1950). 
In 1968, Bilimoria won the National Film award for Best Film on Social Issues for Water. He had also received much critical acclaim as well as an Oscar nomination in 1967 for The House that Ananda Built. A quiet film about a vaishya peasant family in Nadpur village, Orissa, the documentary examined the farmer's traditional way of life, and his changing relationships with his sons who have migrated to different parts of the country and are living at different levels of modernity. With an interesting theme, it was a well-researched long essay illustrated with portraits of the family and other inhabitants of the village. Bilimoria’s The Last Rajah was a film on the ruler of a small state who had to change his lifestyle with the dissolution of the princely system. Another landmark film was his documentary on the Anglo-lndian community.
Bilimoria also made many advertising films, going on to retire in 1987. Fali Bilimoria passed away on 14 January, 2001.