Durga Khote was the first upper caste Marathi Hindu woman to become an actress. She excelled in her craft leaving a lasting impression with her performance in V. Shantaram`s Amar Jyoti (1936) and Baburao Painter`s Pratibha (1937). The example she set made Indian cinema in all its aspects, acting, direction, production, acceptable as a respectable profession for women of all religions. Acting was at last liberated opprobrium.

This was the probable reason why in its early years the Indian cinema cast Anglo Indian women as the leading ladies. Educated, upper class actors like Durga Khote and Devika Rani, wife of the owner of Bombay Talkies, blazed a trail. The extraordinary Kamlabai Gokhale also merits a mention. She was a doyenne of Marathi theatre and one of the screen`s first professional actresses.

Jaddan Bai, producer, director, incomparable singer, musician and mother of Nargis; Protima Dasgupta produced films; a popular actress in Tamil and Telegu cinema; Shobhana Samarth, queen of mythological films and others deserve a mention while discussing about Indian actresses. Apart from there acting there was something else that common to all these leading ladies. They all turned to direction.

Many other women from every region have made illustrious contributions to Indian cinema despite the constraints they faced and the fundamental machismo of a trade that even today has the difficulty of accepting women except as actresses, musicians, and , increasingly, film editors.

A filmography of Durga Khote will include the following films: