Trymbak B Telang

Trymbak B Telang, also known as Trymbak Balaji Telang, was one of the earliest Indian cinematographers and a member of Dadasaheb Phalke’s pioneering filmmaking team. His name is inseparable from the beginnings of Indian cinema, as he played an important role in making Raja Harishchandra (1913), widely regarded as the first full-length Indian feature film, as its cinematographer.

A childhood friend of Dadasaheb Phalke, Telang was from Trimbakeshwar (Maharashtra), the same village where Phalke was born. He came from a priestly family and was himself engaged in priestly work before joining Phalke’s filmmaking enterprise. His entry into photography and cinema was closely connected with his friendship with Phalke, who introduced him to still photography as a hobby. This early experience gave Telang a foundation in photographic techniques and helped prepare him for the more demanding work of motion-picture cinematography. When Phalke began assembling the team for his first major indigenous feature production, he summoned his old friend, Telang, to Bombay.

Phalke travelled abroad in 1912 to acquire the knowledge, equipment, and technical expertise needed to establish indigenous film production in India. After returning, he began assembling the infrastructure for filmmaking, including a Williamson motion-picture camera. Telang was entrusted with the important technical responsibility of operating the camera. As he already had experience with still cameras, Phalke entrusted him with the Williamson camera and trained him to operate it, making him an essential part of the technical team behind Phalke’s first productions.

Telang’s most historically significant contribution came with Raja Harishchandra, produced and directed by Phalke in 1913. While Phalke managed the production, including writing, direction, production design, make-up, editing, and film processing, Telang was responsible for camera operation and cinematography. The completed film was approximately 3,700 feet long, or about four reels, and its production reportedly took six months and 27 days. Raja Harishchandra was screened at the Olympia Theatre in Bombay on 21 April 1913 and received its commercial release at the Coronation Cinematograph and Variety Hall in Girgaon on 3 May 1913. Through his work on the camera, Telang became one of the people directly responsible for translating Phalke’s vision into moving images and establishing the technical foundations of Indian feature filmmaking.

Telang’s association with Phalke continued well beyond Raja Harishchandra. Working under the banner of Hindustan Film Company, he served as a cinematographer on several of Phalke’s subsequent films. As Phalke’s filmography drew largely on Hindu mythology and epic narratives, most of his works fell within the mythological or devotional genres. Films such as Raja Harishchandra (1913), Mohini Bhasmasur (1913), Satyavan Savitri (1914), Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra (1917), Lanka Dahan (1917), Sundopasunda (1924), Hedimb Bakasur Wadh, Shatamukh Ravan Vadh (1925), and Moon Cursed by Ganpati, also known as Chaturthi ka Chanda (1926), drew on mythological narratives. His devotional films, including Sant Sakhubai (1922), Balaji Nimbalkar (1926), and Malhari Martand (1928), explored religious devotion and regional religious traditions. A notable departure from these themes was Uncle Outwitted (1925), also known as Kakasaheb Outwitted or Kakasahibenchya Dolyat Jhanjhanit Anjan, a social comedy centred on an uncle who is cleverly deceived. Telang is credited as a cinematographer on these films, reflecting his sustained contribution to Phalke’s filmmaking enterprise.

He was part of a small group of experienced technicians who developed practical filmmaking skills during the formative years of Phalke’s studio, the Hindustan Films Company. When Phalke later became embroiled in disagreements with the company’s partners, Telang and some of his colleagues were considered potential successors to Phalke in overseeing its filmmaking activities. Besides Trymbak Telang, the group of potential successors included Mama Shinde, Anna Salunke, Gajanan Sane, Dattatreya Telang, and Nath Telang. 

His family was also connected with Phalke’s filmmaking enterprise. Telang’s two daughters appeared in small roles in Raja Harishchandra, offering an intriguing glimpse into the close personal and family networks that made up most of the crew in Phalke’s team.

Trymbak Telang’s camera work belongs to the earliest surviving chapter of India’s indigenous film history, placing him among the important, though long-overlooked, pioneers of Indian cinematography.