When she is not shooting, she is recording songs for films. When she is not presenting live music shows with her band, she is dancing on stage.
“I love to multi-task; I always have. When I had trained in classical music as a young girl, I had never imagined that I would one day become a playback singer and that people would recognise me through my voice,” says Remya Nambeesan, whose new Malayalam film, Jilebi , reached cinemas last week. “I play a successful career woman, a corporate executive in Jilebi . She is also the mother of two kids,” she says.
Saigal Padukayanu is another Malayalam film she has high hopes about.
“It is one of the strongest roles I have done in recent years. I play a woman who goes through various phases of life. I decided to do the film because it was directed by Sibi Malayil and written by T.A. Razaq. Although I have not sung any songs in it, it has some lovely songs composed by M. Jayachandran.”
As for her music, she has recently recorded a song for Akashavani . “I have sung a duet with Arun Alap. The song has been composed by my brother Rahul Subramanian. I have got some interesting work as a singer coming up in Tamil too. For instance, one of the songs is for a Jeyam Ravi movie. The song has been tuned by S. Thaman,” she says.
She is happy that she has been recognised as a singer in Tamil. “‘Fy, fy, fy…’ ( Pandyiyanaadu ) and ‘Pogathe…’ ( Damal Dumeel ), helped my Tamil singing career take off. I was, of course, known as an actor in Tamil, thanks to the stunning success of Pizza. I have been getting good response to my latest Tamil film, Naalu Poleicum Nalla Irundha Oorum , which released in July,” adds Remya.
She admits she has taken a fairly long time to establish herself as an actor. “I believe in the proverb, slow and steady wins the race. I am enjoying my second innings as an actor in Malayalam with films like Traffic , Chappa Kurishu , Left Right Left and English . It was quite an experience working with Shyamaprasad in English ; he brings the best in an actor,” she says.
She considers herself lucky that she also gets to work with the leading music directors in Malayalam. “I have sung for M. Jayachandran, Gopi Sundar, Deepak Dev, Bijibal and Ramesh Narayanan. But it is to Sharath that I am most indebted to. It is because of the faith he showed in me that I became a singer,” she says. “This is how I want my career to go on, striking a nice balance between singing and acting,” she signs off.
