Rima Kallingal on winning the best actor award at the Kerala Film Critics Awards, acting in an Anjali Menon film and being a dancer-OxBig News Network

Gratitude. Rima Kallingal sums it up with one word when I ask her what she is feeling. Winning the Kerala Film Critics Awards for the Best Actor, praise for her Sree Kanya in the segment Backstage, directed by Anjali Menon, part of the coming of age anthology Yuva Sapno Ka Safar and the astounding response to her latest dance production Nayika, a tribute to Malayalam cinema’s women actors of the past 100 years, Rima says: “I feel a surge of gratitude and happiness as an artist! ” 

We are sitting in her apartment in Panampilly Nagar, Kochi, which wears a dash of whimsy and has dance-related stuff strewn all over. She has just opened the new space for her dance school, Mamangam, which she founded in 2014. It is the material from there, related events and her impending trip to the US (for a month-long series of stage shows), she explains, accompanied by her trademark full-throated laugh.   

Sharing the best actor award

“I had forgotten about it when the announcements [Kerala Film Critics Awards] came, I was scrolling to see which film it was for. We were filming in Varkala last March. ” Although Rima is seen far and between onscreen, the work that she has been doing is interesting, in her own words. “Getting a best actor award for a film like Theatre — A Myth of Reality alongside mainstream films for which Tovino [Thomas] and Nazriya [Nazim] got awards is saying something about films and where Malayalam cinema is.” 

Backstage, which recently dropped on the Waves app, is the story of estrangement and reconciliation of two dancer friends, Gowri (Padmapriya) and Rima’s Sree Kanya. The nuanced telling of a story that only Anjali can, and abhinaya-laced performances by the two actors is a refreshing and evocative take on layered female friendships. Rima calls getting to work with Anjali a dream come true.

Rima, 41, says the film’s set was a ‘safe space’ where more than 60 percent of the people on the set were women. “When we were shooting the climax, when the two friends talked to resolve the estrangement, every woman there had tears in her eyes. That is the thing about female friendship; they are more nuanced — we ask, we tell everything, we want to know…. We all have that one friend with whom we are or may have been estranged! It was so relatable.” 

Her last commercial release was Neelavelicham (2023). She was curious about how the audience would react to Backstage, which is a small slice of life presented in 40-odd minutes. 

The happiness shows, Rima is glowing because of it. With good reason — she has carved a space for herself despite hostility and ridicule for her political stance as a feminist or as a member of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC). 

When I ask her of the lost opportunities (in films) because of her politics and how she feels about it, she says, “Yes, it affected me career-wise. There was a time when I was not happy about having to pay the price for my beliefs; today I am happy to. I did not want to change my stand to get work, I don’t want to. I am sure about it. If, as an artist, my work derives from the space and time I live in, how can I deny what is happening?”

Rima Kallingal in Backstage
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The message being sent, with the way the actors who spoke up against the status quo were penalised, is that to succeed they have to keep quiet. She confesses to feeling feminist fatigue with constantly trying to change the way people think. “Now I am like if someone absolutely wants to be a misogynist, so be it. I can’t be constantly arguing and trying to change them.” 

For the love of dance

Her focus currently is dance, she is open to work that is exciting enough. “Filmmakers who approach me, come with offers that need me like Theatre — The Myth of Reality.”

Talking about women in Malayalam cinema, the conversation segues to Nayika. Her face lights up when she speaks about her tribute in dance to the ‘nayikas’ of the past and present. The one-hour show, choreographed to some of Malayalam cinemas classic, well-loved songs featuring the women actors, has been staged in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. She is taking it to the US now. 

Neythe- The Art of Weaving being staged at International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFOK) in March, 2025
| Photo Credit:
NAJEEB KK

“I have split Nayika into four eras which span from the black and white to the present. It starts with a homage to PK Rosie, the first of us. It is a sobering reminder of how she was treated, discriminated against for her caste. The songs we have picked induce such a rush of nostalgia…and that resonated with the audiences too,” says Rima. The last song is Bougainvillea’s ‘Stuthi…’ “and I had to add ‘Chillane…’ [22 Female Kottayam] because it is from my film and also because the song still has such a feel!” she says laughing. 

Although she had carried the idea of Nayika for a while, it was a conversation about how a more relatable dance production would work with audiences, post-Neythe, which is inspired by handloom weaving. That is how she decided to work on Nayika. The research, she admits, was intense. “I did not want it to be just another dance show with film songs. I wanted it to be more than that, I have tried my best to ensure that nobody is left out.” The scope of what she has done is huge, encapsulating a journey of a century into 60 minutes was not easy. 

“I am not done with Nayika, I want to bring in more layers,” she says. Pulling out her phone she shows videos and photographs of Nayika. It is evident that she and her team have pulled out all stops, creatively. Nayika is a spectacle in the truest sense of the term.     

She credits her team at Mamangam for what she has been able to achieve. “They inspire me to go after what I want. I could not have done it without them. I have never liked to dance solo, I have always wanted to dance as a team. People like Aloshy and Greeshma (dancers with Mamangam) who look at dance seriously, as a career. That is what they do. When I started dancing, I was unsure, but now there is a space for dance and those who want to make it a career.” Five choreographers, each a specialist in their genre such as folk, classical, hip hop, pop etc worked on the Nayika production which will have 16 dancers.    

Being a dancer, acting in films that she wants to be a part of and winning awards while at it…Rima Kallingal is in a happy space and she is grateful for it.