Pauly Valsan – Popular character artist of Malayalam cinema of ‘Ee.Ma.Yau’ fame

Pauly Valsan is a well-known character artist from Mollywood known for her power-packed performances in Ee.Ma.Yau, Ottamuri Velicham, Beautiful, and Iyobinte Pusthakam. She is also an acclaimed stage actress with decades of experience in this field. Currently she is in spotlight for winning Kerala state award for best supporting actress for 2017 and 2018 for the offbeat films, Ottamuri Velicham and Ee.Ma.Yau respectively. Annan Thambi marked her debut in Malayalam films, and Amar Akbar Antony, Guppy, Dakini, Koode, Lucifer etc are a few more films in which she appeared.

Pauly Valsan hails from Vypin, the fishing village belonging to Ernakulum district. She belonged to a fisherman family, and had 6 younger siblings. As a stage actress she started off at an early age, and initially her decision was not supported by her parents. Now she owns nearly 4 decades of experience in this field, since 1970s. She has been not interested in films earlier. That’s why she made a late entry only in 2008. Yet in the past one decade, two received two state awards. She has appeared in around 50 movies till now.

Pauly Valsan – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. During her initial days in theatre, she has acted along with Thilakan and P. J. Antony.

2. Her state award winning film Ee.Ma.Yau makes us remember about the fishing village to which she belongs to.

3. She played some brief, yet memorable roles in movies; Hospital scene in Beautiful and Ambulance scene in her debut film Annan Thampi are the best instances.

4. Hers was a love marriage – an inter caste one. She fell in love with her neighbor Valsan, a singer and they got married ignoring opposition from both families. After some years the families accepted them.

5. Though she played different kinds of character roles on stage, she loves comic ones most. Her debut role in films was one such.