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A Dentist on the Cannes Red Carpet: Dr. Remya Niranjan's Case for Purpose Over Glamour
Why did a San Francisco pediatric dentist walk the 79th Cannes Film Festival red carpet? For Dr. Remya Niranjan, it was about children, advocacy, and women's empowerment.
New Delhi [India]: You don't expect to find a pediatric dentist on the red carpet at Cannes. The 79th edition of the festival was full of the usual faces, but Dr. Remya Niranjan wasn't there to chase a fashion moment. She was there with a question on her mind: what is a platform like this actually for?
Her answer says a lot about how she works. By day, Dr. Remya treats young patients in San Francisco, California. She is also the First Runner-Up of Mrs. India Queen of Substance 2021, a title whose name she seems to take literally. For her, the spotlight is only useful if it points at something worth seeing.
At Cannes, that something was children, specifically those with special needs and those from communities that rarely make it into the frame. Where the festival traffics in glamour, she tried to redirect a little of that attention toward kids who go unnoticed. It was a deliberate move: borrow the visibility of a global stage and spend it on a cause that doesn't usually get one.
