Remembering Legendary Actress Durga Khote 1905-91

Durga Khote (January 14, 1905− September 22, 1991) was one of the foremost leading ladies of her times; she remained active in Hindi and Marathi cinema, as well as theatre, for over 50 years, starring in around 200 films and numerous theatre productions.

She was born as Vita Laud, to a family which hailed from Goa and spoke Konkani at home. The young Vita Laud (Durga Khote) was educated, like her brother and sister, at Cathedral High School St. Xavier’s College where she studied for the B.A.

While still in college, she married into the Khote family, graduated and settled down with her husband. They had two sons. By the age of 26, Durga Khote was a widowed mother with two young sons, Bakul and Harin. She had to seek work in film to support her children.

At the time J. B.H. was working with Mohan Bhavnani as the latter’s assistant. The talkies had just come and Bhavnani who had just made a picture wanted to give it the box office appeal of a “talkie” ending. The picture starred Mrs. Bhavnani and her husband was looking out for a girl who would feature with his wife in the climax. Durga was ready to have a go at the part, accepted the role and went off to the studios the same day to start work. Mr. Bhavnani’s heterogeneous production was soon completed, printed and in the can.The film flopped.

One person who liked her portrayal in this film was V. Shantaram then with Prabhat Studios. They were about to make “King of Ayodhya” and Shantaram offered to cast her as Taramati. Durga accepted the role and played it beautifully. The film was not only good but a big hit, in both the Hindi and Marathi versions. Bewitched by the applause the young entrant went on to act in her next film “Maya Machhindra”. This was a smash hit and established her straight off as a top star. There followed a large number of films in all of which she starred and won acclaim from the public and from the film industry. And she continued to do for the next 40 years by sheer dint of dramatic skill. 

The roles she played were not only numerous but varied; she portrayed young mothers, anxious mothers, termagant mother-in-laws, good women, nasty ones, warrior queens and did marvelous work in devotionals, historical and mythological. She also proved to be a polished comedienne.

Among her memorable films were “Anand”, “Abhiman”, “Khushboo” (which she loved doing), “Bobby” (in which she worked again with Raj Kapoor after years), “Jaaneman”, “Bawarchi”, “Bidaai” which was a big hit and for which she won many awards and “Shaque”, a murder story in which she played a small but brilliant role.

She also ranks among the top ten actresses in mother roles in Hindi cinema,[3] most notable among them were as Jodhabai in K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960), as Kaikeyi in Vijay Bhatt's classic, Bharat Milap (1942); her other memorable roles as mother were in Charnon Ki Dasi (1941), Mirza Ghalib, Bobby (1973) and Bidaai (1974).

She was received the highest award in Indian cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1983), for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. A postage stamp, bearing her face, was released by India Post to honor her on 3 May 2013.
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