Remya Nambeesan

Early life and family

Remya Nambeesan was born to Subrahmaniam Unni and Jayasree. Her father is a former theatre artiste, who was an active member of troupes such as "Jubilee" and "Harishree". She has a brother, Rahul, who has worked as the music director in the Malayalam movie Philips and the Monkey Pen and as a playback singer in the film Thattathin Marayathu. She attended the Mahatma Gandhi Public School, Ambadimala near Chottanikkara. Remya graduated with a bachelor's degree in Communicative English from St. Teresa's College, Ernakulam.

Career

Remya first appeared as a child artiste in the critically acclaimed drama film Sayahnam in 2000, directed by R. Sarath. She further played minor supporting roles in the following years in films including Sathyan Anthikad's satire film Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka (2001), the art film Sthithi (2002), under R. Sarath's direction again, and Gramaphone (2003) and Perumazhakkalam (2004), both directed by Kamal. She collaborated a third time with Sarath for the short film Bhoomikkoru Charamageetham (2006), a cinematic version of a poem by O. N. V. Kurup.

She played her first leading role, as a bold dance teacher, in the 2006 film Aanachandam; it was a highly unsuccessful venture, which went unnoticed soon after its release. Regarding to her performance in the film, a critic from Rediff noted that she was "refreshing in bits", while another reviewer cited that she was "refreshing enough for a village based flick". Her subsequent projects, Changathipoocha (2007) and Panthaya Kozhi (2007) released to mixed reviews and offered hardly any scope for her, failing to propel her career. The next release, Chocolate (2007), which featured Remya as one of three leading females, gained her considerable attention, after the film went on to become a high commercial success. In 2008, she accepted her first non-Malayalam project, Andamaina Mansulo in Telugu, which was followed by her first Tamil film, the romantic drama Raman Thediya Seethai. Anthiponvettam was her only Malayalam film of 2008, which opened to largely negative reviews, while Remya received positive feedbacks on her performance, with a critic from IndiaGlitz describing her as "a saving grace in the entire movie". In the following two years, she appeared in just three films. She played the female lead in Saarai Veerraju (2009; Telugu) and Aattanayagann (2010; Tamil) and played a minor supporting role in Nammal Thammil (2009; Malayalam) —all of which proved critically and commercially unsuccessful, although her performance in the former was lauded. IndiaGlitz claimed that she was the "best performer" in the film, further adding that she had "raised to the occasion and carried the deglamorised role perfectly".

In 2011, Remya who till then had appeared in a series of repetitive roles as a village belle, undergoing an image makeover, choosing more serious, substantial and versatile roles. Her first release of that year was Traffic, starring an ensemble cast. Remya portrayed Shwetha, a "stylish seductress", a character with negative shades. Although her role in the film was short, her performance was appreciated by critics. She next appeared in the thriller film Chaappa Kurish as Sonia, a secretary who has an affair with her colleague. She shot a long kissing scene with her co-star Fahad Fazil in the film – supposedly the first ever in Malayalam cinema — which upon release was termed as controversial, causing a great stir in the industry. Remya later stated: "An actress should always be ready to take risks if her character demands so. Even when I was aware that the two-minute intense scene could create waves, I was sure that it was inevitable as it suited the plot. A sense of necessity made me accept that scene. I think director Sameer Tahir brought out the best in me. In fact, I enjoyed doing the scene". She went on to state that she did not regret "doing it"; she further credited the Tamil film industry for "propelling" her image makeover. She was part of two Tamil productions, Ilaignan, scripted by former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi, and the romantic comedy Kullanari Koottam. She performed a comical role as Priya, a zoology student, in the latter, and received positive feedback. Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff noted that she was "pretty, expressive, and does well with what she's been given". She next appeared in a low-budget Telugu flick by Ravi Babu, Nuvvila, featuring a cast of almost all newcomers, in which she played a "girl with a fetish for cooking".

In Bachelor Party she was seen in a "very stylish role", and Ivan Megharoopan featured her in a cameo appearance. She also signed up Saji Surendran's comedy flick Husbands in Goa, in which she played a "docile wife", and an offbeat flick by Priyanandan, titled Oru Yathrayil. She shot for a Tamil film, Kavithalayaa Productions' Muriyadi, a remake of the Malayalam sleeper hit Passenger (2009), which was not released. In the upcoming Jilebi, Remya will play a mother of two kids.

Other work

Before her entry into the film industry, she was hosting a phone-in music show Hello, Good Evening on the Malayalam channel Kairali TV. Having learned carnatic music from her childhood, she has sung several numbers for devotional albums on Chottanikarai Bhagavathi. In 2011, composer and music directorSharath called Remya to record a song for the Malayalam biographical film on P. Kunhiraman Nair, Ivan Megharoopan, after she had expressed her desire to sing to Sharreth at a reality show. She has since sung playback for several films including her own films like Bachelor Party, Up & Down: Mukalil Oralundu and Arikil Oraal which she has acted in and for films she was not part of, like Thattathin Marayathu and Amen. Her singing has been praised and got her offers from other South Indian film industries too. She has sung for the Telugu film Telugabbai, for the Tamil film Pandiya Naadu and will be singing for a Kannada film. She got nominated for a Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Malayalam for her song "Andilonde" from Ivan Megharoopan. She won many other awards for the song "Muthuchippi Poloru" from Thattathin Marayathu, which was also one of the top Malayalam songs of 2012. She has worked with leading, award-winning music directors like Shaan Rahman, Prashant Pillai, M. Jayachandran, Gopi Sunder and D. Imman. In 2014 she sang an Ayyappa devotional song, "Muttath ninnu Chirikkum", which garnered 1.5 lakh hits in YouTube.

Awards

Kerala Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress - English, Nadan (2013)