Durga Khote (English: Durga Khote, born: 14 January, 1905; died: 22 September, 1991) was a famous actress of Hindi and Marathi films in her time. She acted brilliantly in many hit films. After playing the role of a heroine in the initial films, when she appeared in front of the audience in the role of a character actress, people remember her unmatched acting till date. Durga Khote acted in hundreds of plays along with about 200 films and played an important role in removing social taboos regarding films.
Durga Khote was born on 14 January 1905 in a reputed family and her early life was not happy and her husband died when she was only 26 years old. Durga Khote had a normal childhood but even after marrying of her own choice, her domestic life was very difficult and full of sorrow. Durga was very troubled by her husband and whatever happiness she got, she got from her children only.
After her husband’s death, Durga Khote had the responsibility of raising two children. In such a situation, she took the path of films. In those days, men often played the role of women and films were not viewed favorably in most homes. Durga Khote entered films during the silent film era and ‘Farebi Jaal’ was her first film. As a heroine, ‘Ayodhyacha Raja’ was her first film which was in Marathi as well as Hindi. This film was successful and Durga Khote became established as a heroine in the world of cinema. Durga Khote’s success inspired many and the social taboo associated with Hindi films began to break. Durga Khote took another initiative and bypassed the studio system and became a freelance artist. In the studio system, artists worked for one company on a monthly salary. But Durga Khote rejected this system and worked for many film companies simultaneously.[1]
Before Durga Khote started working in films, men used to play female characters as well. When the father of Hindi films, Dada Saheb Phalke, made the first Hindi feature film “Raja Harishchandra”, he could not find a woman to play the role of Raja Harishchandra’s wife Taramati. He was forced to cast a young man named Salunke in the role. Seeing this situation, Durga Khote decided to work in films and this step of hers helped open the doors of films for girls from respectable families as well. She started her film career in 1931 with a small role in Prabhat Film Company’s silent film ‘Farebi Jaal’ but her experience was not good and she became disillusioned with films. She would probably not have worked in films again but producer-director V. Shantaram somehow convinced her to play the role of Rani Taramati in his next film ‘Ayodhyacha Raja’ (1932), made in Marathi and Hindi languages. For this work, he took the help of the hero of the film, Govindrao Tembe. It is said that Tembe went to Durga Khote’s house with Shantaram Bapu so many times that his complexion turned dark and people started saying that he should be called ‘Ayodhyacha Raja’ or ‘Africacha Raja’.
After the tremendous success of this first Marathi talkie film, Durga Khote never looked back. She came into the limelight with Prabhat Film Company’s 1936 film ‘Amar Jyoti’. In 1934, Calcutta’s East India Film Company produced the film ‘Sita’, in which her hero was Prithviraj Kapoor. Her powerful performance in this film directed by Devaki Kumar Bose put her in the league of top actresses. She was the source of inspiration for many generations of Indian actresses. These included heroines like Shobhana Samarth who used to tell how they got inspiration from Durga Khote.[2]
She is especially remembered for her role of a mother in Hindi films. While she played the memorable role of Salim’s mother Jodhabai in filmmaker K. Asif’s much-acclaimed film Mughal-e-Azam, she also brought alive the role of Kaikeyi in Vijay Bhatt’s ‘Bharat Milaap’. As a mother, she also played excellent roles in films like Charanon Ki Dasi, Mirza Ghalib, Bobby, Vidaai.
In Prabhat Company’s film ‘Maya Machhindra’ (1932), Durga Khote played the role of a brave warrior. For this, she wore warrior’s clothes, held a sword in her hand and wore a helmet on her head. In one scene of the film, a hawk actually attacked a character actor, so Durga Khote caught it and controlled it until its trainer arrived. Such roles paved the way for other actresses as well.
Apart from acting, Durga Khote also produced short films, advertising films, documentaries and serials for a long time. Durga Khote also produced and directed a film named ‘Saathi’ in the year 1937.
This personality, who played an important role in strengthening the position of women in the cinema world, died on 22 September 1991. Apart from Hindi and Marathi films, Durga Khote, who was active in the world of theatre for nearly five decades, was one of the prominent personalities of her time who paved the way for women in films.
