Indian actress Kani Kusruti won the IMDb STARmeter Award for “Breakout Star,” besting her critically acclaimed roles in Cannes-winning “All We Imagine as Light” and Sundance-winning “Girls Will Be Girls.”
The laurels, determined by IMDb’s monthly traffic of over 250 million visitors worldwide, indicate Kusruti’s meteoric rise on the platform’s popular Indian celebrity chart – a metric that has proven to be a reliable crystal ball for identifying talent on the verge of turning into a supernova.
Kusruti’s profile was very hot after her star turn in Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, where she played Prabha, a Malayali nurse navigating life in Mumbai. The film created a sensation at Cannes 2024, winning the Grand Prix and marking a historic moment as India’s first entry in the main competition in three decades. The Golden Globes took notice too, giving the film two nominations, while IMDb users settled for a solid 7.2/10 rating.
The actress, whose CV includes stints in “Kerala Cafe,” “Biriyaani” and “OK Computer,” is also making waves this awards season with an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her supporting work in “Girls Will Be Girls.” The ceremony is scheduled to take place in February, where “All We Imagine as Light” will also compete for the Best International Film award.
“I’m really happy and touched to receive the IMDb ‘Breakout Star’ STARmeter award,” Kasruti said. “I don’t always have that confidence, so every once in a while, when you get that kind of validation, you feel like you’re doing something right.”
Kusruti joins a list of previous recipients of the STARmeter “Breakout Star” program, including Sharvari, Nitanshi Goel, Medha Shankr, Bhuvan Arora, Angira Dhar, Adarsh Gourav, Ashley Park, Ayo Edebiri and Regé-Jean Page.