Maqbool Fida Husain, popularly known as M F Husain, is one of India's best known artists. He was born in October 1915, in Pandharpur, Maharashtra. Husain went to school in Indore. In 1935, he moved to Bombay and was admitted to the Sir J. J. School of Art. He started off by painting cinema hoardings. Husain first became well-known as an artist in the late 1940s. In 1947, he joined the Progressive Artists' Group, founded by Francis Newton Souza. In 1952, his first solo exhibition was held at Zurich and over the next few years, his work was widely seen in Europe and U.S.. In 1955, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Shree prize by the Government of India. In 1967, he made his first film, Through the Eyes of a Painter. It was shown at the Berlin Film Festival and won a Golden Bear. M. F. Husain was a special invitee along with Pablo Picasso at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1971. The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) (USA, Massachusetts) showed a solo exhibition from 4 November 2006 to 3 June 2007. It exhibited Husain’s paintings inspired by the Hindu epic, Mahabharata. According to Forbes magazine, he has been called the "Picasso of India".