30s

30s

Shobhna Samrath's first film was "Orphans of Society" (1935) also called Nigahe Nafrat or Vilasi Ishwar for Kolhapur Cinetone.She left Kolhapur Cinetone and joined Sagar Movietone (Sagar Film Company), she acted in Do Dilwale (1936) and Kokila (1937). By the end of 1937, Shobhana left Sagar and joined General Films, acting in Industrial India (Nirala Hindustan)and  Pati Patni (1939).By 1939 she had joined Hindustan Cinetone making four films with them, which included Kaun Kisi ka (1939) Saubhagya (1940)  Apni Nagariya (1940) and  Ghar Javai (1941)In 1942 came her career-defining film Bharat Milap, followed by Ram Rajya in 1943.Samarth later produced and directed a pair of movies that launched the careers of her aughters, Nutan and Tanuja

Jaddan Bai was an early singer, music composer, actress and filmmaker of Bollywood and one of the pioneers of Indian cinema. She was the mother of well-known actress Nargis. She was the first female music director in the Indian film industry, followed by Saraswati Devi. She later began acting and her films were Raja Gopichand, Insaan ya Shaitan, Prem Pariksha and Seva Sadan, She started her own production company called Sangeet Films. The company produced Talashe Haq in 1935, in which she acted and composed the music.

Sitara Devi When she was just a twelve-year-old girl, Sitara Devi was recruited by Niranjan Sharma, a filmmaker and a dance director, and she gave dance sequences in some Hindi movies including her debut in Usha Haran 1940, Nagina 1951, Roti, Vatan 1954, Anjali 1957 (directed by Chetan Anand, brother of Dev Anand). In Mother India 1957, she performed a Holi dance dressed as a boy, and this was her last dance in any movie. She stopped performing dances in movies, as the same were adversely affecting her passion for excelling in the classical dance, kathak.

Sabita Devi is stated to be one of the "prominent" leading ladies of the "pioneering era" of Indian cinema. A Jew by birth, she changed her name to find acceptability in Hindi cinema like the other Anglo-Indian and Jewish actresses of her time. After initially working with British Dominion Films Ltd., Calcutta, she shifted to Bombay and performed mainly in films produced by Sagar Movietone with her co-star in most films being Motilal. Some of the popular films with Motilal were Dr. Madhurika (1935) and Kulvadhu (1937). One of the top directors of the time she worked with doing social genre films was Sarvottam Badami. She formed her own production company, Sudama Pictures, in collaboration with Sarvottam Badami along with the assistance of Ranjit Studios. From 1935–1943 Sabita acted in fifteen films, all directed by Badami. Some of the comedy films she acted in like Aap Ki Marzi (1939) and Ladies Only (1939), turned out to be big box-office successes.[

Jamuna   was married to the legendary actor director Pramathesh Barua, or P.C. Barua, who died in 1950. She began her acting career in her husband's famous production Devdas in 1936 and was the film's lead character Parvati or Paro. She went on to make a number of memorable movies in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi, notably Amiri, Mukti, Adhikar and Sesh Uttar. She stopped acting after Barua died.

                                                                               

Zubeida was only 12 when she made her debut in Kohinoor. Through the 1920s she made infrequent appearances on screen along with Sultana who, by then, had become one of Indian cinema's loveliest leading ladies. One of the films to star the two sisters was Kalyan Khajina in 1924. They had also shared the screen in Zubeida's first blockbuster, Veer Abhimanyu released two years earlier, that also had their mother, Fatima Begum, playing an important role.In 1925 Zubeida had nine releases, amongst them Kala Chor, Devdasi and Desh Ka Dushman. A year later she starred in her mother's film, Bulbul-e-Paristan. 1927 was memorable for her with movies Laila Majnu, Nanand Bhojai and Naval Gandhi's Sacrifice which were very successful movies at this time. Zubeida starred in a string of silent films before Alam Ara proved to be the turning point in her career and was her biggest hit. She suddenly was highly in demand and got wages high above the standards for a woman in the film industry at that time.Through the '30s and early '40s she made a hit team with Jal Merchant and starred in several successful mythological films playing characters like Subhadra, Uttara and Draupadi. Zubeida was one of the few actresses to make a successful transition from the silent era to the talkies.

Fatma Begum was an Indian actress, director, and screenwriter. She began her career on the Urdu stage. She later shifted to films and debuted in Ardeshir Irani's silent film, Veer Abhimanyu (1922).Begum became the first female director of Indian cinema with her 1926 film, Bulbul-e-Paristan. While no known prints of the film currently exist, the high budget production has been described as a fantasy film featuring many special effects. If true, the film places Begum among early pioneers of fantasy cinema such as George Melies. While continuing to produce and appear in her own work, Fatma worked for Kohinoor Studios and Imperial Studios until her last film in 1938, Duniya Kya Hai? She directed many other films, her last being the Goddess of Luck in 1929.

Sultana, also known as Sultana Razaaq, was one of the earliest film actresses from India and acted both in silent movies and later in talkie movies. She was daughter of India’s first female film director Fatima Begum. Zubeida (leading actress of India's first talkie film Alam Ara (1931)) was younger sister of Sultana.

Ruby Myres, the self-named Sulochana,was among the early Eurasian female stars of Indian Cinema.She was working as a telephone operator when she was approached by Mohan Bhavnani of Kohinoor Film Company to work in films. Among her popular films were Typist Girl (1926), Balidaan (1927) and Wildcat of Bombay (1927) where she essayed eight roles including a gardener, a policeman, a Hyderabadi gentleman, a street urchin, a banana seller and a European blonde. Three romantic super hits in 1928 - 29 with director R.S. Chaudhari - Madhuri (1928), Anarkali (1928) and Indira B.A. (1929) saw her at her peak of fame in the silent film era. She received the Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 1973 for her lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.

Seeta Devi, born Renee Smith, was one of the early stars of silent films. Himanshu Rai cast Smith, an Anglo-Indian, in Prem Sanyas, the movie which is better known by its English title: The Light of Asia. This was her debut film as Seeta Devi, and it made her a star immediately. Later she acted under the banner of Madan Theatres as well.Three of her most successful films were: The Light of Asia, Shiraz, and Prapancha Pash. All three of these films were made through the collaboration of German film director Franz Osten and Indian actor-producer Himanshu Rai. Three of her other successful films, Durgesh Nandini, Kapal Kundala and Krishnakanter Will were based on popular novels of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.