Actor Meenakshi Jayan on winning best actress for Victoria at Shanghai International Film Festival 2025

Actor Meenakshi Jayan says she often dreamt about winning an international award for acting — the excitement when her name is announced, embracing the people sitting next to her, and slowly walking up the stairs. Suddenly, the dream turns into a nightmare — the stage comes crashing down, stairs break, and the actor falls. “My mind would start playing tricks. I was never able to place myself on a big stage. It once felt like I never belonged there,” says the actor and winner of the best actress award in the Asia New Talent category at the Shanghai International Film Festival for her performance in Victoria.

“But now, I can place myself on big stages,” says Meenakshi over WhatsApp from Shanghai. The actor played the titular role in Victoria, directed by Sivaranjini J essaying the internal struggles of a young beautician who plans to elope with her Hindu boyfriend after her Catholic family finds out about the relationship, while she is forcibly entrusted to take care of a rooster.

The actor embodies the struggles faced by young women against the backdrop of a women’s only beauty parlour, dedicating her award to “women who were told they were too much.” “I am going to be too much today,” she declared during her acceptance speech.

Meenakshi’s entry into Victoria can be described as predestined. After responding to the casting call, she received a call from one of the associate directors who told her that they were looking for a girl who speaks the Angamaly dialect. Hailing from Tripunithura, in the other side of Kochi, Meenakshi took this as a challenge and travelled to Angamaly to talk to a few people there. She spoke to butchers, mobile shop owners and textile saleswomen and recorded these conversations for reference.

“As I was about to return to Tripunithura on a KSRTC bus, I called the associate director to see whether he could connect me with someone who speaks the dialect and he immediately mentioned the director Sivaranjini. He told me she was at the Angamaly KSRTC bus stand where I was waiting to board my bus. This was our first meeting. I was sweaty from all the roaming I did that day and worried whether that affected my chances. However, after the shoot, Siva told me she liked me in that look. She noticed how my phone was also broken like Victoria’s, a detail mentioned in the screenplay,” says Meenakshi, affectionately called Meenu.

Meenakshi points out another coincidence regarding her casting. “On the day of my audition, I met this chechi while I was waiting for the bus. She asked me where to find a bus to Angamaly in the typical Angamaly dialect. Since we were headed in the same direction, I decided to stay close to her and speak to her until the audition. During our conversation, she told me that she runs a beauty parlour called Meenu’s.

Preparing for the role

The actor worked in a beauty parlour for a month to prepare for the role. “Beauticians at parlour, Neethu chechi and Victoria (another staff at the beauty parlour) taught me pedicure, henna treatment, threading, massage and more. Neethu chechi had me take notes. It was fun.”

Sivaranjini got the idea of a rooster in the beauty parlour when she encountered the same at a parlour where the rooster was an offering to a church. “The rooster, Parthan, was a fun member. We didn’t have to communicate anything to him. We took several shots of him just reacting to something and added them in the final edit. He was very cooperative,” says Meenakshi.

After Victoria

Victoria premiered at the 29th International Film Festival of Kerala in 2024, where it won the FIPRESCI award for the best Malayalam film by a debut director. Meenakshi was awarded the best performance at the Independent and Experimental Film Festival of Kerala in 2025. The film was also screened at the Cinema House in Mumbai and the Habitat Film Festival in Delhi.

“The first time I boarded a flight was for Victoria’s screening in Mumbai. My first international trip was for this festival. I applied for a passport because Siva told me to. I realised how big the world is after Victoria,” Meenakshi says, recalling an instance in the movie where the character says that she has not been on a plane. “Now Siva and our DOP Anand Ravi look at me when that scene comes.”

For the women

“A lot of people might find Victoria relatable. It looks at confusion and anxieties within people from a unique perspective. It is also from the perspective of one of the most wonderful women I have met,” says the actor, hoping to have a commercial release for Victoria. Meenakshi is also awaiting the OTT release of a web series directed by PR Arun in which she plays a quirky character.

“I will forever wait for another character like Victoria. All actors would crave to be part of such character-driven films; this includes female actors too. How long can you act as someone’s girlfriend, wife, or mother? We want well-written female characters with depth,” says Meenakshi. “And the stair shouldn’t break nor the stage come crashing down.”

Published – June 24, 2025 05:14 pm IST