Swanam, her gateway to luck

Remya Raghavan is back in her home in Mahe from the Kolkata International Film Festival. She hasn’t gotten over the surprise. It was such an amazing transformation that happened to her life over the past few months. She was just another contented home maker living her quiet life with her loving family till Swanam happened. The movie, which saw Remya playing the mother of a visually-challenged boy, was screened at the festival earning them praises from the audience.

A trained dancer, Remya used to perform Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattom at school college festivals and was active in theatre and mono act. But when marriage and motherhood took over, she dropped all those. “Though there were no possibilities, I had been secretly nursing acting dreams. But never had I hoped that I could act, that too, on big screen,” says Remya, who owes it all to the director, Deepesh T, who has earlier made the controversial Pithavinum Puthranum and the State Award-winning children’s movie Ankuram.

Deepesh was a family friend of Remya and her civil engineer husband Vijay. He was looking for someone to produce Swanam when he gave them the screenplay while they were on a trip. “The emotional story of a visually-challenged boy who motivates his lazy classmate to work hard impressed us. Before we reached our destination, we had made up our minds; that we would produce it,” recalls Remya.

The first process was audition and 12 boys were chosen from Kannur, including Abhinand, who acted as the blind boy. It was Deepesh who found that Remya and Abhinand had similar facial features and asked her to try acting. She was hesitant first. “I didn’t want to ruin the role, but when everyone insisted, I decided to give it a try,” she says. A mother to Draupad, a medical student, playing the single parent Savithri didn’t bother Remya. 

“Savithri is a character who wants her son to grow up like a normal boy and supports all his dreams. When the child demands he be enrolled in normal school, she readily agrees. I am happy to have made my debut as a strong woman,” she adds.

The responses from the premiere show that she must have done a good job, but Remya would like to give the whole credit to the boys. “No one would believe that Abhinand is actually a normal boy. His portrayal of the visually-challenged boy was very convincing and realistic. Equally talented is Niranjan, who played his lazy friend,” she says.

Swanam, which is gearing up for a theatrical release next month, will be screened at Mumbai and Delhi film festivals next year. “It’s a very inspiring narrative. I’m sure parents, kids and teachers will love it,” she says.

The movie has opened an avenue of opportunities before Remya. She has got many offers and will be next playing a medical college principal in V.M. Vinu’s Marupadi with Santhosh Keezhattur. She is open to producing movies as well. “I am planning to take forward both acting and production, if good projects come my way,” she concludes.