Durga Khote, née à Bombay (Indes britanniques) le 14 janvier 1905 et morte dans cette ville le 22 septembre 1991, est une actrice indienne, active pendant plus de 50 ans au théâtre et au cinéma hindi et marathi, pour lequel elle a été la vedette dans quelque 200 films.

Biographie

Her two sons Bakul and Harin were born from her first marriage with Vishwanath Khote. It was a traditional marriage into an orthodox family. Vishwanath Khote was from a millionaire family who were, at that time, the largest share brokers and road contractors. Vishwanath was a mechanical engineer from Banaras Hindu University who died young. After she was widowed, Khote had an unsuccessful second marriage to Mohammed Rashid. Harin himself died at a young age, and was survived by his wife, Vijaya Mehta and two sons.

Her grandchildren include Ravi, a filmmaker; granddaughter Anjali Khote; grandson Deven Khote, a television producer, and a noted film producer, making films like Jodhaa Akbar and Life in a Metro.

Sharda Mukherjee, the ex governor of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh and wife of India's first air chief marshal Subroto Mukherjee was her first cousin (mother's sister's daughter). Sharda Mukherjee's paternal uncle Ranjit Sitaram Pandit was married to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister Vijaylaxmi Pandit.

Her brother-in-law, Nandu Khote, was a noted stage and silent movie actor. His daughter Shubha Khote acted in Hindi films; debuting in Seema (1955), she later directed and produced Marathi films and entered television in the 90s. Viju Khote, most known for his role of Kalia in Sholay (1975) is a noted character actor, and younger brother of Shobha. Shobha's daughter, Bhavna Balsaver, is an award-winning TV actress. They appeared together in 1993's sitcom Zabaan Sambhalke on DD Metro.

Later in life she wrote her acclaimed autobiography in Marathi which was later translated into English as I, Durga Khote, and moved to Alibaug, near Mumbai. She died on September 22, 1991.