Bhagwan Dada. He is the name identified with the 1951 musical hit Albela, mostly remembered for C. Ramachandra's catchy music and a slow and gentle style of dancing that inspired many, including Amitabh Bachchan. But Bhagwan Abhaji Palav deserves a greater place among the film industry's pioneers for his little-known achievements in the decade preceding Albela. That was the period when he made low-budget, action-packed entertainers that made even Raj Kapoor want to imitate him. It is this legacy that an upcoming Marathi biopic, Ek Albela, seeks to showcase. However, Ek Albela is a rarity on the Indian film firmament, as was Harishchandrachi Factory (2009), a delightful tale about how Dadasaheb Phalke founded cinema in India. It was Bapu Watve's book on the grand old man of Indian cinema that inspired filmmaker Paresh Mokashi to capture Dadasaheb's life on the big screen. Although the film's success created possibilities for similar tales on cinematic achievements to emerge, such films were far and few between Celluloid (2013), about the difficulties faced by J.C. Daniel as he made the Malayalam industry's first film, Vigathakumaran, was one. A filmmaker like Mahesh Bhatt may have confronted his own past by presenting it in movies such as Arth (1982), Janam (1985) and Zakhm (1998), but Indian filmmakers have mostly shown little interest in portraying the triumphs and tribulations of their own people. Why this lacuna? Sudhir Mishra, whose Khoya Khoya Chand (2007) captured the mood of Bombay cinema of the 1950s, says biopics on filmmakers may not exactly fit into the formulaic style of contemporary Bollywood. Mokashi thinks it could be because film personalities in India do not get the same kind of importance as political figures, and that "films don't affect social norms, political decisions do". Renowned filmmaker Shyam Benegal, whose rich oeuvre includes a