As a child, I thought I was the only Indian Jew in the world. This made me feel like an ethnic unicorn when I was growing up in mostly white and Christian southern Maine. When I learned that Jews came in all colors and from all over the world, including India, I gave up being a unicorn and became a person. In India, there are seven main groups of Jews: Cochin Jews, Jews from Chennai who have Sephardic ancestors, the Bene Israel community, the Baghdadi Jews, the Bnei Menashe, and the Bene Ephraim. The Bene Israel community is the largest. This is true, but Indian Jews have always played a big role in the world of Indian cinema, especially in the early silent era of movies.
People in India had a lot to say about their culture on the screen even before Bollywood came along. Traditional values and modern changes came together in a film, so early Indian filmmakers made a lot of movies about how women changed their roles in their society. However, it was hard to find actresses who could show these issues and conflicts. If a Hindu or Muslim woman performed in public, it was seen as a form of prostitution. Even more so, to play some of the sexy characters screenwriters were coming up with. Jewish women, on the other hand, didn’t have to follow this same set of rules. They were the stars of the silent movie as well as the movement for women’s rights, in part because they were outsiders.
Source: https://www.jwa.org/blog/india-s-jewish-silent-film-stars-and-power-of-outsider
