Malayalam star Kani Kusruti: Actors should be given equal opportunities

Kani was recently awarded Best Actress in the BRICS competition category at the 42nd Moscow Film Festival, and she dedicated her win to Malayalam cinema's first ever heroine, PK Rosy.

"I dedicate this award to PK Rosy, the first heroine of Malayalam cinema and also the first Dalit actress in Indian cinema. Her house was burnt down for her crime of playing the part of an upper caste person and she was forced to flee for her life.

"I see a lot of amazing actors not being offered characters they could have been amazing at, just because of gaps in the current talent-representation infrastructure. I share this award with all of them and hope that together, we will soon create a new culture of motion picture excellence that will provide equal opportunities to all actors, irrespective of their caste, class or skin colour," Kani told IANS.

The young artiste was awarded for her role in "Biriyaani".

"I play a character called Khadeeja. She has been deprived of agency all her life -- her social context has offered her very little freedom in matters of family, sex or religion. A set of tumultuous circumstances force her to take a journey of transformation in exile, where she invents her own rules of morality, avenging her suffering in a way as grotesque as the prejudice and hatred that caused it," Kani added.