Imagine yourself in the spring of 1913, at the start of Indian cinema — what we now know as Bollywood, the song-and-dance escapist film business.
Because it was deemed impolite for Hindu and Muslim women to appear on film at the time, they hired big males with typical Indian mustaches to portray women by donning bedazzled saris and bangles and prancing around. It all comes together to resemble a Monty Python comedy.
Then, one day, a theatrical producer had an idea: why not put female Jewish Indian dancers as Hindu heroines because their families had permitted them to perform onstage? Indian Jewish women rose to become some of the most famous starlets during the golden age of Bollywood in a largely unknown and practically forgotten story.
