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Celebrity Corners | Inside Kani Kusruti's Goa Garden Home
In a tranquil bungalow in Goa, actor Kani Kusruti has cultivated a garden that’s as wild and unfiltered as she is — lush, open and free of frills.
Back in the ’90s, Kani Kusruti grew up in a small town near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. She’s now settled in Goa, living with a group of friends in a forested area that reminds her of home.
The Malayali actor had a phenomenal 2024, from Girls Will Be Girls recently winning the John Cassavetes award at the 40th Independent Spirit Awards in California, to All We Imagine as Light winning the grand prix at the Cannes Film Festival, the best international film award at the New York Film Critics Circle, and two Golden Globe nominations in 2024.
Despite the acclaim, Kusruti admits she only attends a handful of film festivals — and when she does, she harbours no superstitions about winning. “I’m an atheist and a rationalist,” she reveals, sinking into a sofa in her living room, with the afternoon sun streaming in.
Having started her career in theatre, she prefers the stage to the screen. She moved to Goa about eight years ago and lived there full time until 2020. “But [around a year into] the pandemic, I did Maharani, and that’s when I started getting work in the Hindi [industry]. From then on, I’ve been travelling,” Kusruti recalls. She adds, “Of course, as a Malayali actor, I should ideally be in Kochi but I’m sacrificing some things to be in a place that I like to live in.”
Living in a green bungalow with four others — co-founders of Memesys Labs Anand Gandhi and Zain Memon and director-producer Shreya Dudheria — Kusruti reflects on friends who turned to family. “I used to date Anand,” she says. “We’re not a couple anymore, but still resonate intellectually and emotionally, we understand each other. Anand is like family and a part of my life. He now has a partner, Shreya, and we all live together.” At Memesys, whose office is right next door, they create documentaries, design board games, and develop stories. “We moved to Goa because it’s quieter and calmer — a better quality of life,” says the 39-year-old actor.
In the Wilderness
Despite this being a rented home, most of the greenery around is Kusruti’s doing. She points to the creepers that climb to her bedroom balcony — blocking some of the harsh midday sun — the bougainvillea that add a touch of colour, and to a tree that stands right in front. “This is my favourite from Kerala, it’s called ‘pavala malli (night jasmine)’,” she says.
“You also plant for the next generation. I have stayed in a lot of rented homes and planted in all. Sometimes, I go back to those streets to check on them,” Kusruti says, deeming this to be her one “secret pleasure”.
But an interesting fact about Kusruti’s garden is that it isn’t manicured. It’s not sculpted to perfection or engineered for aesthetics. It’s wild — lush, untamed and growing on its own terms, just as she likes it.
“I want it to look like a jungle. In this garden, there are things that the others (her housemates) like — growing plants in pots, for instance,” she notes. “But I don’t want any [planning]. We have a gardener here who only wants to cut and I’m always fighting with him. I’d like it to grow as it is.”
As an actor, she’s much the same, growing on her own terms. “I wouldn’t even call it a career. I was into theatre and liked the process, which is why I continued to be an actor.” After rejecting some offers, she agreed to Kerala Cafe in the late noughties only because she wanted financial independence. “Theatre didn’t give me enough money to survive. I didn’t plan for anything…I don’t have a plan for tomorrow. That’s how I am,” she says, walking into her garden barefoot.
As the photographer captures her among the plants and saplings she lovingly talks about, there are no hair and make-up touch-ups, no wardrobe adjustments. She remains as she is — unfiltered, effortless, and completely at ease in her wilderness.
Kusruti tears up as she unconsciously mimics the way her father once had her pose when he clicked her photos as a child with trees. It reminds her of her past self. “When I was younger, I had more clarity. A rebel and a radical, I wouldn’t sacrifice my integrity,” she says.
“You’re an irreplaceable part in the making of this art form, but you don’t have your own voice. The final word is the director’s — who decides the script, dialogue and editing.” Kusruti explains that, in an ideal world, perhaps that of her younger self, she would pick projects only based on the story, but as a pragmatic adult, she also considers the character and her work prospects at the time.
Speaking of her directors, Kusruti recalls Payal Kapadia’s love for gardening as well. “She has indoor plants and checks the pH value and everything,” she says, adding, “I’m bad at indoor gardening; more used to the ones my grandmother, father and I used to plant.”
But she credits Kapadia for the success of All We Imagine as Light. “It’s her film, her design, her work. I believe if another actor played Prabha, they would also pull off an amazing performance because it’s the way Payal worked — how we all did, together.”
The actor considers herself lucky for having worked with both Kapadia and Shuchi Talati. “They are different kinds of directors. When I get a chance to work on a film, I go in with an open mind — understanding how the director wants me to approach the character.” While those like Kapadia and Talati are open to collaboration, others have a clear idea of what they want, and in both cases, Kusruti’s a complete director’s actor.
As she walks back inside, she sighs, gesturing to an empty corner. “We had creepers here too, which the gardener cut when I was not here…”
A Minimalist
Inside the house, the soft hum of a blender fills the air, mingling with the crisp scent of lemons as lime juice is prepared. The space around is strikingly bare — no excess furniture, no scattered trinkets — just open, uncluttered expanses, reflecting a quiet simplicity.
“I’m a minimalist, I wouldn’t have this much furniture,” she says. While some pieces are hers, others belong to her housemates. “It’s many people’s designs, but the interiors are mostly Shreya and Zain’s doing.”
Kusruti’s sitar sits in the corner, though she insists she’s not a sitarist, just as she mentions that she likes to doodle, but she is by no means an artist. Her bedroom is the one part of the house that’s entirely hers — minimal and monochromatic.
Kusruti is a pragmatist with no frills — both in her home and in how she views her work. “I objectively think I’m an average actor. I work hard and, on some days, I am good, but I know a lot of my fellow actors who are amazing. I know they would do a better job than me if they were to get the parts that I did,” she says.
She does like some of her own performances — like the scene in Girls Will Be Girls (2024), when Anila is sleeping, and her character Monalisa Paul from OK Computer (2021). Inspired by Malayalam cinema greats like Urvashi, Kusruti disagrees with the notion that the industry is only now on the rise. In her view, it has always excelled in screenplays, character writing, storytelling and acting. “It didn’t have subtitles; hence non-Malayalam speakers never understood the films.”
While Malayalam films now have bigger budgets, Kusruti believes it’s only when the story demands it, as with Minnal Murali (2021). “Sometimes, in [other] productions, the money goes into the star’s salary and comfort. I don’t know if that’s the right way of distributing money in a film.”
The actor sits in the grass, posing, as neighbourhood dogs bark, unsettled by the afternoon’s disruption. Cats watch from a distance as Kusruti talks about her office cat. “In Kerala, I grew up with more than 20 cats, but they weren’t pets, so to speak. It was an open house…”
The friend group also hosted a party for the first time a few months ago. “[British actor] Hugo Weaving came and the amazing [folk singer] Mukhtiyar Ali performed.” Talking about life in Goa, Kusruti feels content, and as an actor, she’s accustomed to the ebb and flow of cinema — the applause and the silence. “For me, what’s important is the process — it’s not about the journey after release. Those are just brownie points you get sometimes.”