Becoming Aami's valli

Remya Raj begins the conversation with an apology – she was busy with the last-minute rehearsal of the play Guide, an adaptation of R.K. Narayanan’s famous novel, in which she plays four characters – the lead actor’s mother, another character’s sister, a pregnant woman and a prostitute. Remya has just finished shooting for her first film as a heroine. In Udalaazham, she plays Mathi, the wife of a transgender named Gulikan, portrayed by Photographer-fame Mani. She also acts as Valli, the housemaid, in Kamala Das’ biopic Aami.

All humble when referred to as ‘heroine’, she says,  “Don’t call me that; I am comfortable with ‘Remya’ itself. Nothing that happened so far was a plan; it all just came to me.” She too had normal plans – to study and secure a job. During her graduation days, she found out that Mathematics was not her cup of tea and switched to Philosophy.  After that, an entrance test she took without preparation landed her in the Journalism Department of the University of Kerala. After securing her masters’, she had been to several media houses seeking job. “I sensed that my skin tone never conformed to their beauty standards, especially on visual media, and was rejected.” 

“I wasn’t hurt; I was used to it.” The strange irony of fate landed her in modeling with her photographer friend found her as a perfect subject. She went on to model for her and for brands like DesiTude. In between came a stringer stint with Doordarshan, an MPhil in Performing Arts, which brought theatre to her life.  “I started off with Abhinaya. A lead role came with the play Exit, who director Shyam Reji is whom I direct now,” she laughs. Shyam and Remya have been happily married since 2014. The next year, she acted in her first movie — Kamal’s Utopiayile Rajavu. A friend from the sets suggested her as Valli in Aami, in which she has the getups of a 35 to 45-year-old. Then came Udalaazham.

“The shooting was at Nilambur forests. The toughest part was the dialogues in Paniya tribal language as it was sync sound recording,” says Remya, who will be part of the portmanteau movie Crossroads in the segment directed by Madhupal and as Mrs Nair in Anil Banerjee’s satire show Munshi.

Call her a dusky beauty and Remya will laugh it off as another cliché. Since childhood, she had been an object of ridicule for her dark skin tone. The movie roles have been of maids, tribals, etc, but typecast doesn’t bother her. “The taunts might have affected me during my teens but soon, I grew out of it. 
My colour is my identity. I have never and won’t ever dream of a fairer me,” she concludes.