Dadasaheb Phalke had to cast a male cook as the leading lady in India's first film. For his next project, a single mother named Durgabai Kamat risked social ruin to step in front of the camera.
When Phalke—now remembered as the "Father of Indian Cinema"—was producing that first 1913 film, Raja Harishchandra, acting in moving pictures was considered unacceptable for respectable women. It was heavily stigmatized and often equated with prostitution. Phalke searched everywhere for a female lead, even visiting red-light districts, but no woman would agree to be filmed. This strict social barrier forced him to cast Anna Salunke, a young male cook, in the role of Queen Taramati.
The commercial success of Raja Harishchandra began to legitimize the new medium. When Phalke started production on his second film, Mohini Bhasmasur, later that same year, he finally secured his breakthrough with Kamat.
Durgabai was a Marathi stage actress who had already faced social ostracization for her involvement in traveling theater companies. Needing the income to raise her young daughter, she was willing to brave the stigma of the nascent film industry. Phalke cast her in the role of Goddess Parvati, officially making Durgabai Kamat the first female actor in Indian cinema.
The collaboration went further. Phalke also cast Durgabai's young daughter, Kamlabai, in the lead role of Mohini. At just 13 years old, Kamlabai became Indian cinema's first female child artist.
Though Mohini Bhasmasur was a short mythological silent film, the collaboration between Phalke and Kamat altered the trajectory of the Indian film industry. By bringing Durgabai and her daughter to the screen, Phalke proved that women could safely work in cinema. Durgabai Kamat's decision to accept the role laid the foundation for generations of Indian actresses, shifting the medium from an all-male enterprise into a viable profession for women.