Google Doodle honours PK Rosy on 120th birth anniversary: All you need to know about first Malayalam female actor

Google marked the 120th birth anniversary of PK Rosy, the first female lead in Malayalam cinema, by dedicating a Doodle to her. Rosy was born Rajamma in Thiruvananthapuram and her passion for acting began at a young age.

New Delhi: Google paid homage to Malayalam cinema's first woman actor PK Rosy on the occasion of her birth anniversary. P. K. Rosy was born on February 10, 1903. She was the first female actor in Malayalam cinema. She acted in J. C. Daniel's directorial Vigathakumaran (The Lost Child).

She was born Rajamma in 1903 to a Pulaya family in Nandankode, Trivandrum. Her father passed away while she was very young, leaving her family in extreme poverty, according to her living relatives. She worked as a grass cutter when she was younger. She also had a strong interest in the arts, which her uncle nurtured by helping her find a music and acting instructor.

She also routinely attended the neighbourhood school of performing arts to study Kakkirasi Nattakam, a style of Tamil folk theatre based on tales of Siva and Parvati's arrival on Earth as nomads and performed in a combination of Tamil and Malayalam.

Acting was not traditionally regarded as a woman's vocation in those days, and women who thought acting was a serious career were deemed licentious or "loose". Rosy's passion for acting seems to have outweighed any worries she may have had about what people would think of her. Many people assert that her family changed her name from Rajamma to Rosamma after converting to Christianity.

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In her first movie Vigathakumaran, she portrayed the Nair woman Sarojini. A Youtube video that goes by the name Rosiyude Kadha - Part 2 (The story of the first Heroine of Malayalam Film Industry) has revealed that the fact that a Dalit woman played a Nair woman in Vigathukumaran infuriated members of the Nair community. According to reports, her home was burnt down by upper castes and she eloped, got married to lorry driver Kesavan Pillai and spent rest of her life in Tamil Nadu.

Many prominent people in the film industry at the time, including the well-known attorney Madhoor Govindan Pillai, declined to attend the Vigathakumaran premiere if Rosy was going to be physically present. The audience hurled rocks at the screen after a moment in which the main character kissed a flower in her hair.

Daniel, the director, declined to personally invite her to the Capitol Theatre in Thiruvananthapuram's opening night out of concern for the reaction. Rosy had gone anyhow, but those who were boycotting the event had her see a second performance. (With agency inputs)