In the 1960s, formula Bollywood films invariably showed a bawaji dressed in daglo and pugree, guaranteed to elicit a loud guffaw from the audience, as if they had seen an extra-terrestrial. Raj Kapoor’s Bobby, a hit at the box office in 1972, lampooned a large Parsi aunty (veteran thespian Piloo Wadia) breathlessly showering kisses on the young hero. Cute, comic, eccentric, harmless, barmy.
Although Parsis were the pioneers of Indian cinema, the community did not take kindly to women actors, singers and musicians. The Minocherhomji sisters were heckled, threatened, persecuted and derided by the enraged orthodox, compelling the ladies to......