Durgabai Kamat

Durgabai Kamat Biography

Durgabai Kamat was the first heroine of Indian cinema, aside her daughter. She acted in the second ever film made in India, Mohini Bhasmasur, which featured female artists for the first time. The full length silent movie was made in the year 1913 by none other than Father of Indian Cinema - Dadasaheb Phalke. Along with Durgabai, her 14 year old daughter - Kamlabai Kamath (also known as Kamlabai Gokhale) also made her screen debut, thus becoming the first child actress onscreen. Though it was a landmark in Indian cinema, female artists didn’t come forward to work in movies as it was a taboo in Indian society those days when actresses were considered as prostitutes.

Durgabai Kamat, the Marathi actress created a new episode on Indian history of cinema, by portraying the role of Goddess Parvathi in the movie, while her daughter played the parallel lead of Mohini in the film. Later many of the artists of her family entered Hindi and Marathi film world. She is the maternal grandmother of veteran Marathi actor Chandrakant Gokhale. National award winning actor Vikram Gokhale and Mohan Gokhale are her great-grandchildren.

Women acting in theatre and cinema were considered a taboo in the early 1900s. For the same reason when Dadasaheb Phalke made first Indian feature film, he was forced to employ male artists in the female roles. But with the second movie, he started employing female artists handling female roles. Thus Durgabai Kamat and her daughter Kamlabai Ghokhle played first women on Indian screen. Durgabai was born in 1899. She died on May 17, 1997 in Pune aged 98.

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Updated: June 27, 2014