Durgabai Kamat was an Indian Marathi actress, who was the first actress in Indian cinema.^[2] She is known as The First Female Actress in Indian Cinema when she acted in film Mohini Bhasmasur in 1913 at that time when it was not considered an appropriate profession for girls from respectable families.^[3]

Kamat was born in a Marathi Hindu Brahmin family.^[4] She was interested in arts from a very young age and her father was a renowned musician. Durga learnt to play musical instruments such as the veena, tabla and sitar. She could sing, dance and paint like most upper-caste families of that time, was very conservative. She studied till 7th standard and later married a history teacher but it didn't last long. Durgabai made her debut as an actress in stage and theatre plays and made history as the first female actor, while Kamlabai became the first child actress of Indian Cinema. Her rather bold decision to raise her child single-handedly and to pursue a career in acting saw her being ostracized by her Brahmin community.^[5]

Durgabai Kamat first joined a traveling theatre company called Chittakarshak Natak Company and lived a nomad's life, with her daughter Kamlabai in tow. Because they were on the go all the time, Durgabai also took it upon herself to home school her daughter. Around this time, Durgabai took up Dadasaheb Phalke on his offer to star in his next feature film, along with her daughter. Mohini Bhasmasur was a mythological black and white feature film, starring Kamlabai as Mohini and Durgabai as her mother, Parvati.^[5][6]

In the early 1900s, acting in film or theatre was a taboo for women, so much so Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, had to use male actors for female roles in first Indian film, Raja Harishchandra.^[7] However with its success, female actresses were encouraged. Thus he introduced Kamat in his 1913 second movie Mohini Bhasmasur as a leading lady Parvati, while her daughter Kamlabai Gokhale, played the role of Mohini, thus becoming the first female child actress of Indian cinema. After Kamat, other actresses started working in cinema.^[8]

In 1927 she acted in film Babanchi Bayko directed by Narayanrao D. Sarpotdar, starring K. Ghaneker, Koregonkar Durgabai, Varne Pandurang and Gondhaleker. With the coming of sound in movies then in 1931 she acted in Gulami Janjir a social film, directed by Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and co-starred Takle, Rafiq Ghaznavi, Hyder Shah and Manohar Ghatwani.

Durgabai married Anand Nanoskar a history teacher at the J. J. School of Arts, Bombay but their marriage did not last long, and despite the societal taboos, they parted ways in 1903. After their separation, Durgabai went on to raise her then three-year-old daughter Kamlabai on her own.^[5] She was also the maternal grandmother of veteran Marathi actor Chandrakant Gokhale,^[9] and the great-grandmother of actors Vikram Gokhale.^[2]

Kamat died on 17 May 1997, in Pune, Maharashtra, at aged 118.^[10]

• Watve, Bapu (2012) [2004]. Dadasaheb Phalke, The Father of Indian Cinema. Translated by Virkar, S. A. National Book Trust. ISBN 978-81-237-4319-6.

• Durgabai Kamat at IMDb