India, March 7 -- She is the only actress in Kannada cinema to have a strong market even though she hasn't had a movie release in years. Sandalwood star Ramya, who joined the Congress party in 2012, spoke about the state of Kannada cinema today in a panel discussion on Women in Cinema at the Bengaluru International Film Festival on Thursday.

Ramya lamented, "Malayalam cinema has such diverse roles for women but sadly Kannada cinema doesn't have this. There are no strong characters written for women and I don't want to continue playing a prop in a hero's film - I did this 20 years ago and it's still the same now. I don't want to do a few scenes, some comedy and songs anymore." She added that Kannada cinema had to learn from Malayalam cine...