When mythological and social dramas made their appearance in the early decades of the twentieth century, the female roles were mostly played by men. In folk theatre too, men played important female characters. Given below are the photographs of some male actors dressed as women. Women have also played the male roles, specially in folk theatre and some of those photographs are also given below.
K.S. Ananthanarayanan was a professional theatre artiste in the Tamil theatre in the twenties and thirties. He had a drama troupe of his own called the Arya Gana Sabha in Madurai. The photographs above were taken in Karnatic Studio, Madras, 1931/ 32.