The definitive documentary on this subject is Shalom Bollywood: The Untold Story of Indian Cinema (2017), directed by Australian filmmaker Danny Ben-Moshe. The film traces how Jewish actors and actresses – most from the Baghdadi and Bene Israel communities – became some of early Hindi cinema’s biggest stars at a time when conservative social norms kept many Hindu and Muslim women off screen.
Watch: Shalom Bollywood (2017)
The film premiered at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival and has screened at Jewish film festivals worldwide, including UK Jewish Film. Details and screening information: Shalom Bollywood on IMDb and UK Jewish Film’s programme page.
The Stars the Film Documents
Shalom Bollywood centers on performers including Sulochana (Ruby Myers), Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham, India’s first Miss India), Nadira, and David Abraham Cheulkar – Jewish artists whose Anglo-sounding stage names hid their Baghdadi and Bene Israel roots. Their story is also documented in print: see NBC News’s account of how India’s Jewish community transformed early Bollywood and the Times of Israel’s “When Jews ran Bollywood?”.