P K Rosy

P K Rosy was Malayalam cinema's first actress. She appeared in Malayalam’s first director J C Daniel film’‘Vigathakumaran’ in 1928. She was a Dalit Christian woman born in Trivandrum. But she could not survive in an unfriendly environment. Nevertheless, she succeeded in paving the way for feminist elements into Malayalam cinema after which women were given chances and recognition at least. She is the first lady of Malayalam cinema who could explore and experience the artistic and cinematic potential of cameras. When acting in a movie by a woman was taboo as a first lady of Malayalam cinema, she had faced the ire of society for taking such a bold step in 1928. The actress was not even allowed to see her acting when the film was screened at Capital Theaters at Trivandrum. The reason was that she was a true Dalit woman and had portrayed a Nair lady on screen. The screening theatre was attacked by upper caste because Rosy was a Dalit woman and her portrayal as an upper caste character was not acceptable. She had to run away from her village after her house was set on fire. She managed to escape from Kerala with a help of a lorry driver and land up in Tamil Nadu. She later married the lorry driver who was an upper caste ( a Nair by origin) and Rosy could lead a true Nair’s wife in her real life.

The sad part of her life was that she had to run for her life every time and had to perform many roles in her real life too. People believe that she was a paddy worker in the agricultural field first and was known as Rajamma and later she even appeared in folk theaters and changed her name to Rosamma and when she acted in cinema she was named as Rosy. Much is not known about this actress. But R K Rosy was, in fact. The leading lady of the film ‘Vigathakumaran’ (The Lost Child) which was made and released by J C Daniel in Trivandrum in 1928. In fact, Daniel too became a poor man after the film faced a lot of protest in theatres and had left Kerala.

Later on, in 2013, a biopic film on J.C. Daniel, depicting the true incidents of Kerala was released. The film showed the true love of J C Daniel for cinema. Daniel is accepted as the father of Malayalam cinema. In those days to get a female artist was indeed a tough task. But Daniel did take the risk of casting Rosy and faced a tragedy. This was narrated in film ’Celluloid’ and the film bagged many awards. In honour of this first lady of Kerala screen, the Kerala Government had instituted an award in her name.