Anasuya Sengupta became the first Indian to win a top acting award at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday night.
Anasuya, a production designer who lives in Goa, won Un Certain Regard Prize for Best Actress for her performance in the romance-drama, The Shameless.
The film, directed and written by Bulgarian -American, self-taught filmmaker Konstantin Bojanov, revolves around Renuka, played by Anasuya who, in the dead of night, escapes from a Delhi brothel after stabbing a policeman to death. She takes refuge in a community of sex workers in northern India, where she meets Devika (Omara Shetty), a young girl condemned to a life of prostitution. Their bond develops into a forbidden romance. Together, they embark on a perilous journey to escape the law and forge their path to freedom.
Anasuya dedicated the award to "the queer community and other marginalised communities for so bravely fighting a fight they really shouldn't have to".
Apart from Anasuya, two Indian films Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know and Bunnyhood won the first and third place, respectively, in the La Cinef Selection at this year’s Cannes.
While Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know is a Kannada short film, directed by Chidananda Naik, a student from Film and Television Institute of India, Bunnnyhood is directed by Mansi Maheshwari. She hails from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and has been studying in the UK, according to a report.