PK Rosy: Google dedicated a doodle on February 10 to P K Rosy, Malayalam cinema’s first woman actor, to mark the 120th birth anniversary of India’s first Dalit actor.
Rosy was born in 1903 in Thiruvananthapuram to Paulose and Kunji. She worked as a grass cutter, while also showing an avid interest in acting. She picked up the folk art form of Kakkarissi Natakam from the traditional school of performing arts.
Finding her passion for acting at an early age, she rose to prominence when she played the female lead in the movie ‘Vigathakumaran’ (The Lost Child) in 1928. She played an upper-caste woman. The film included a scene where the male lead kisses a flower in her hair.
Backlash against PK Rosy
The scene triggered a backlash and Rosy was forced to leave the state. Angry crowd pelted stones at the screen and damaged it, said reports. Rosy fled in a lorry to Tamil Nadu, where she married the lorry driver and settled as ‘Rajamma’.
In her brief career, she broke several barriers as performing arts was not encouraged for women at the time.
Film society in Rosy’s name
In 2019, the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) launched a film society in Rosy’s name. In a statement, WCC said, “This act of naming our film society a PK Rosy Film Society is a humble attempt to be sensitive and to take note of all those who have been excluded from dominant cinema histories through their gender, caste, religious or class locations and our own imagination, and have been brought to light by many scholars, historians and activists.”
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