Kani Kusruti
Kusruti in 2024
Born	Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala, India
Alma mater	School Of Drama, Thrissur L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq
Occupation	Actress

Kani Kusruti is an Indian actress known primarily for her work inMalayalam films. She first gained recognition in 2009 with the filmKerala Cafe, in which her performance was critically acclaimed.^[1][2] Kani won theBest Actress atKerala State Film Awards and the Best Actress Award at theMoscow International Film Festival for her performance in the filmBiriyaani (2020).^[3] She has since starred in the independent filmsAll We Imagine as Light andGirls Will Be Girls (both 2024).

Kani was born in Cheruvakkal, a small village inThiruvananthapuram, Kerala, to social activist and rationalist parents Jayasree A. K. and Maitreya Maitreyan. Her parents had dropped their last names to erase the social hierarchy marker that comes with last names in India. At 15, she invented her last name "Kusruti" (meaning "mischievous" inMalayalam) to fill in a requirement in herclass 10th exam application. She grew up in Thiruvananthapuram, where she got introduced to the Abhinaya Theatre Research Centre,^[4][5] "a common platform for theatre practitioners".

She later moved toThrissur, where she enrolled in the theatre arts program at the Thrissur School of Drama, between 2005 and 2007. She completed her theatre education at theL'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, where she studied physical theatre for two years.^[6]

At Abhinaya, Kusruti made her theatre debut in Baudhayana's classic farceBhagavadajjukam. She played the lead role of Vasantsena in the production from 2000 to 2006. The play toured across theatre festivals, including the Bharat Rang Mahotsav and the International Theatre Festival of Kerala. She rendered the part of Kamala in M. G. Jyotish's stage adaptation ofHermann Hesse'sSiddhartha. In 2007, the production was invited to the Villeneuve en SceneFestival d'Avignon.

In 2009, after returning from L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Kusruti appeared in the anthology filmKerala Cafe, in the segment "Island Express" directed byShankar Ramakrishnan. In 2010, she played aNaxalite in theMohanlal starrerShikkar, but her nuanced rendition of a sex worker in the 2010 filmCocktail got her noticed by mainstream audiences.

In December 2010, Kani collaborated on creating 'Las Indias', a "mega performance event" directed by the thespian and theatre pedagogist Elias Cohen. The performance was staged in a bus, that was designed for the production. The Indo-Latin American theatre company, the Singing Sticks Theatre Ensemble evolved out of Las Indias. The bus that was originally created for Las Indias, was used once again for an interactive theatre roadshow 'Tsunami Express: Highway of Hopes', which Kusruti collaborated on making.^[7]

In 2011, Kani joined the renowned touring theatre company Footsbarn to work on a new production of Shakespeare'sTempest. She played Miranda in the resulting performance "The Indian Tempest".^[8] After touring Ireland, Spain, France, Portugal and India,^[9] the production opened atShakespeare's Globe in 2013.^[10][11]

Kusruti researched, co-developed and acted in the Indo-Polish production 'Burning Flowers - 7 Dreams of a Woman', directed byPawel Szkotak and produced byTeatr Biuro Podróży.^[12]

In 2015, Kani became a household presence with the soap operaEswaran Sakshiyayi, directed byK. K. Rajeev. She played the part of Advocate Tresa, a lawyer who joins in on the investigation for her brother's murder.^[6]

Kusruti's mother Dr. Jayasree AK, a community medicine specialist and social activist, lectures at Pariyaram Medical College, and is a regular guest on talk shows. Her father Maitreya Maitreyan has worked for, and led, several human rights movements in Kerala.

She identifies herself as an atheist and a rationalist.^[13][14] On 19 February 2019, she revealed she quit acting due to sexual demands from filmmakers. The actress has now made serious claims against the Malayalam film industry. Kani has claimed that filmmakers even approached her mother to convince her to give in to their demands. Kani chose to go back to theatre, but she couldn't earn enough in that industry to make a living.^[15]

Kerala State Film Awards

• 2019 - Best Actress - Biriyani^[31]

South Filmfare Awards

• 2020 - Best Actress (Critics-Malayalam) - Biriyani^[32]

Moscow International Film Festival

• BRICS Award for best performance in a lead role female -Biriyaani.^[3]

2024 Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards

• Best Supporting Actress – nominated forPoacher^[33]

• Jury member at the2024 Busan International Film Festival for its main competition section 'New Currents Award'.^[34]

• Kani Kusruti atIMDb
• Akella, Bhavana (15 November 2016)."Exploring sexuality on-screen".Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved20 April 2018.
• Soman, Deepa (18 November 2014)."Kani Kusruti in Pisasu".The Times of India. Retrieved20 April 2018.
• "A Flowering Tree".Mubi. Retrieved20 April 2018.

• Living people
• Actresses from Thiruvananthapuram
• Actresses in Malayalam cinema
• Indian film actresses
• Actresses in Malayalam television
• Female models from Thiruvananthapuram
• Actresses in Tamil cinema
• L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq alumni
• 21st-century Indian actresses
• Indian rationalists
• Indian atheists
• Television personalities from Kerala
• Women artists from Kerala

• CS1 Malayalam-language sources (ml)
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from March 2025
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2023
• Articles with hCards
• Date of birth missing (living people)
• Year of birth missing (living people)