अयोध्या का राजा: प्रभात की पहली बोलती

On 23 January 1932, Prabhat Film Company's first talkie arrived — bilingual in Marathi and Hindi, with music by Govindrao Tembe and Durga Khote's landmark step that redrew the place of women on screen.

On 1 June 1929 in Kolhapur, V. Shantaram, V.G. Damle, S. Fattelal and Keshavrao Dhaiber founded the Prabhat Film Company. Two and a half years later, on 23 January 1932, Ayodhyecha Raja reached the screen — Prabhat's first talkie. Made simultaneously in Marathi and Hindi, it was Indian cinema's first double-version talkie, with Hindi dialogue written by Munshi Ismail Farogh.

Govindrao Tembe served double duty — as both music director and actor playing Raja Harishchandra. Rooted in the Kolhapur Sangeet Natak tradition, he had been virtually synonymous with the harmonium for four decades, bringing Hindustani classical music within the instrument's reach. His compositions 'Shiv Shankara, Girjavaran' and 'Jai Jai Rajadiraj' remain the film's enduring musical legacy.

Cast as Taramati, Durga Khote was a graduate of St. Xavier's College and a widowed mother from an elite Konkani Brahmin family. In that era the film industry was widely deemed the preserve of the base; women from respectable homes did not act. The runaway success of Ayodhyecha Raja broke that wall. Khote's step opened a path — after her, educated women entered Hindi and Marathi cinema in growing numbers.