Meenakshi Jayan Wins Best Actress – Shanghai 2025
- Meenakshi Jayan, celebrated for her performance in Victoria, embodies the struggles of young women.
- Jayan's casting in Victoria involved a serendipitous search for an Angamaly dialect speaker.After responding to the casting call, an associate director informed her of the need for someone...
- While waiting for a bus back to Tripunithura, Jayan contacted the associate director, who connected her with director sivaranjini.
Meenakshi Jayan‘s stellar performance in ”Victoria” continues to garner accolades, with her latest win at Shanghai 2025 solidifying her status as a rising star. Jayan’s dedication to portraying complex characters shines, making her recent award a testament to her acting prowess. explore her journey, from dialect immersion to beauty parlor preparations, highlighting the layers she brought to her role. news Directory 3 is proud to feature the story behind her success. Discover what’s next for this award-winning actress.
Meenakshi Jayan, celebrated for her performance in Victoria, embodies the struggles of young women. She dedicated her Self-reliant and Experimental Film Festival of Kerala award to women “who were told they were too much,” declaring she would embrace that sentiment during her acceptance speech.
Jayan’s casting in Victoria involved a serendipitous search for an Angamaly dialect speaker.After responding to the casting call, an associate director informed her of the need for someone fluent in the dialect. Despite hailing from Tripunithura, Jayan traveled to Angamaly, immersing herself in conversations with locals, including butchers and shopkeepers, recording their speech patterns for reference.
While waiting for a bus back to Tripunithura, Jayan contacted the associate director, who connected her with director sivaranjini. Their initial meeting occurred at the Angamaly KSRTC bus stand. Jayan, self-conscious about her appearance after a day of searching, was relieved when Sivaranjini appreciated her look, even noting the similarity between Jayan’s broken phone and a detail in Victoria’s screenplay.
Jayan also recounts another coincidence: on the day of her audition,she met a woman at the bus stop who needed directions to Angamaly in the local dialect. The woman, who ran a beauty parlor called Meenu’s, unknowingly aided Jayan’s planning.
Preparing for the Role
To prepare for her role in Victoria, the actor worked in a beauty parlor for a month, learning various treatments. “Beauticians at the parlor taught me pedicure, henna treatment, threading, massage and more,” Jayan said. “It was fun.”
Sivaranjini’s idea to include a rooster in the beauty parlor scenes stemmed from encountering one at a parlor where it was an offering to a church. Meenakshi noted, “The rooster, Parthan, was a fun member. He was very cooperative.”
after Victoria
Victoria premiered at the 29th International Film Festival of Kerala in 2024, winning the FIPRESCI award for best Malayalam film by a debut director. meenakshi Jayan also secured the best performance award at the Independent and Experimental Film Festival of Kerala in 2025. The film has been 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,” jayan said. “my first international trip was for this festival… I realised how big the world is after Victoria.”
For the Women
Jayan hopes for a commercial release of Victoria,emphasizing it’s relatable themes of confusion and anxiety. She is also awaiting the OTT release of a web series directed by PR Arun, where she portrays a quirky character.
“I will forever wait for another character like Victoria,” Jayan said, expressing a desire for well-written female characters with depth in cinema.