Rachana Narayanankutty

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rachana Narayanankutty

• Since childhood, Rachana Narayanankutty has been active in various cultural activities such as mimicry and dance.

• She participated in several inter-school, district, and state-level competitions. She won the titles of ‘Balathilakam’ and ‘Kalathilakam’ (1996, 1997, and 1998) in the Kerala State School Youth Festival (now known as the Kerala School Kalolsavam).

  

• At age 17, she worked as an assistant choreographer for the film Theerthadanam (2001) in which she portrayed the supporting role of the heroine’s friend.

• She played the role of a maid in the renowned film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan‘s film Nizhalkuthu (2002) after which she concentrated on her studies and teaching till 2011.

• While pursuing her postgraduate degree in Communicative English, she joined Radio Asia as a radio jockey in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

• After three months of working in Dubai, she joined Radio Mango as a radio jockey, in Thrissur, Kerala where she worked for over three years.

• She completed her post-graduation and Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) while working as a radio jockey.

• She then briefly joined as an English teacher at Holy Cross Senior Secondary School, Kunnamkulam, and then at the Devamatha CMI Public School in Thrissur.

• In 2011, her colleague from Radio Mango, who is also one of the writers of the popular sitcom Marimayam, approached her for the role of Valsala Madam, an arrogant government officer. It became one of the most popular characters in the sitcom genre and her career.

• Rachana mentioned in an interview that she was not confident about portraying the comedy role at the start. After wide acceptance and popularity, she acted in the sitcoms till 2013.

• In 2011, she got married but after nineteen days they decided to get separated and were legally divorced the next year.

• In 2012, she hosted the comedy reality show, Comedy Festival Season 1 on Mazhavil Manorama.

• Her first lead role was in the Malayalam film, Lucky Star (2013) as the character, Janaki.

  

• Some other popular roles of Rachana Narayanankutty are Clara in Amen (2013), Advocate Remya in Punyalan Agarbattis (2013), Jessymol in Life of Josutty (2015), and Rugmini in Aaraattu (2022).

  

• She also acted in several short films such as Inverse (2014), Anoop Sathyan’s I.C.U (2016), and Through Her Eyes (2020).

• Some of the other television shows hosted by Rachana are Raveendra Sangeetha Sandhya (2016), Sunday Funday (2019), and Comedy Utsavam (2021).

  

• She was the actor, choreographer, and assistant director of the Tamil film, Nityasumangali (2020).

• She was the executive member of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) for two consecutive terms, from 2018 to 2021 and from 2021 to 2024.

  

• She is also a member of the Internal Complaints Committee of AMMA since 2022.

• She lent her voice to the character Sreedevi in the Malayalam mystery thriller, Alone (2023).

• She has judged various reality shows such as Comedy Masters (2023) and Funs Upon A Time 4.0 (2024) on Amrita TV.

• As a dancer, she has performed at renowned dance festivals such as the Soorya Festival in Thiruvananthapuram and the Natyanjali Festival in Chidambaram.

• She has performed on over 1000 stages since the start of her dancing career.

  

• She has taught dance since her teenage years and has a dance school, Srishti Centre for Arts and Culture in Thrissur, Kerala.

  

• She has also worked as a professor in the dance department at a Bengaluru college.