The actress and model Kani Kusruti is from India. Her critically lauded performance in the film Kerala Cafe brought her initial notoriety in 2009. Kani’s portrayal of Khadeeja in the movie Biriyaani earned her the Best Actress Award at the Moscow International Film Festival as well as the Best Actress Award at the Kerala State Film Awards in 2020.
Kani Kusruti Childhood
Kani was born to rationalist and social activist parents Jayasree A. K. and Maitreya Maitreyan in Cheruvakkal, a small village in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. In order to remove the social class indication that comes with last names in India, her parents had deleted their last names.
Kani Kusruti created the last name “Kusruti” at the age of 15, which translates to “mischievous” in Malayalam, in order to meet a criterion on her application for the class 10th exam. Growing up, she was exposed to the Abhinaya theatrical Research Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, which serves as “a common platform for theatre practitioners” .
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After that, she relocated to Thrissur, where she studied theatrical arts from 2005 to 2007 at the Thrissur School of Drama. She studied physical theatre for two years at the L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, where she completed her training in theatre.
Kani Kusruti Career
Kusruti debuted on stage at Abhinaya in the traditional farce Bhagavadajjukam by Baudhayana. From 2000 until 2006, she portrayed Vasantsena in the major role. The piece travelled to several theatrical festivals, such as the International theatrical Festival of Kerala and the Bharat Rang Mahotsav. In M. G. Jyotish’s stage version of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, she played the role of Kamala. The show received an invitation to the 2007 Villeneuve en Scene Festival d’Avignon.
Following her return from L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in 2009, Kusruti starred in Shankar Ramakrishnan’s “Island Express” part in the Kerala Cafe anthology film. She portrayed a Naxalite in the 2010 Shikkar film starring Mohanlal, but it was her nuanced portrayal of a prostitute in Cocktail that garnered her attention from mainstream viewers.
With theatre pedagogue and thespian Elias Cohen, Kani co-created “Las Indias,” a “mega performance event” in December 2010. A bus specially built for the production served as the venue for the performance. Las Indias gave rise to the Indo-Latin American theatre group Singing Sticks Theatre Ensemble. Kusruti and others worked together to produce the interactive theatre roadshow ‘Tsunami Express: Highway of Hopes,’ which was presented on the bus that was initially built for Las Indias.
2011 saw Kani join the esteemed Footsbarn touring theatrical group to assist with a brand-new Tempest production by Shakespeare. Kani Kusruti appeared in the ensuing production of “The Indian Tempest” as Miranda. Following tours in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, and India, the play had its Shakespeare’s Globe debut in 2013.
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The Indo-Polish performance titled “Burning Flowers – 7 Dreams of a Woman,” directed by Pawel Szkotak and produced by Teatr Biuro Podróży, included Kusruti as an actor, researcher, and co-developer. With the K. K. Rajeev-directed soap drama Eswaran Sakshiyayi in 2015, Kani rose to fame. Kani Kusruti portrayed Advocate Tresa, a lawyer who participates in the inquiry into her brother’s death.
Kani Kusruti Honours
Kerala State Film Awards 2019: Biriyani wins Best Actress.
2020 South Filmfare Awards: Biriyani wins Best Actress (Critics, Malayalam).
Biriyaani won the BRICS Award for best performance by a female main actor at the Moscow International Film Festival.
Kani Kusruti Individual Life
Dr. Jayasree AK, Kusruti’s mother, is a social activist and community medicine specialist who frequently appears as a guest on talk shows and lectures at Pariyaram Medical College. In Kerala, her father Maitreya Maitreyan has spearheaded and supported multiple human rights campaigns.
Kani Kusruti resides in Mumbai alongside her partner, Anand Gandhi, a science communicator and filmmaker. She describes herself as rationalist and atheist. Kani Kusruti disclosed on February 19, 2019, that she left performing because of sexual demands made by filmmakers. The actress has now levelled grave accusations against the Malayalam cinema business. Remarkably, Kani has stated that filmmakers even spoke with her mother to persuade her to comply with their requests. Kani decided to return to theatre, but her income in that field was insufficient to support her.[Reference required]
However, in light of the #MeToo Movement and initiatives such as Women in Cinema Collective, Kani remains optimistic about the Malayalam cinema industry. In response to lynching incidences in the nation, Kusruti and 48 other well-known musicians wrote an open letter to Narendra Modi in 2019.
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