Maitreyi Ramakrishnan discusses teen female friendships in her upcoming film Turning Red

Turning Red, the latest film from Disney and Pixar, recounts the heartwarming narrative of Meilin (Rosalie Chiang), a geeky adolescent going through changes in her life while negotiating a turbulent yet love relationship with her 'tiger mother,' Ming (Sandra Oh). Mei has a gift from her ancestors, in addition to the normal problems of adolescence. When she is furious or enthusiastic, she transforms into a red panda!

While her family, particularly her nosy maternal relatives, waits for the ritual to solve her problem, Mei embarks on a rollercoaster ride with her closest friends in order to obtain tickets to their favourite boyband's concert.

During a press conference that Pinkvilla attended, Sri Lankan-Canadian actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, (who plays the voice of Priya in the film) emphasised the importance of female friendship in her upcoming film.

"I love that we show the importance of four young girls being supportive of each other just to show good female friendships,” said the Never Have I Ever (2020) actress when asked about her take on female friendships.

Maitreyi also expressed her thoughts on the lack of representation of actual female groups in mainstream films, adding, "With TV and film, we always portray that your love interest is the one that you should be closer with. You know, like that's the real bond. That always made me sort of sceptical because wouldn't the childhood best friend know you better? They know what your favourite ice cream flavour is, they know what to do when you're having like a breakdown. That's important.”

Turning Red marks the debut feature film of Academy Award-winning director, Domee Shi. It also features the voices of Ava Morse and Hyein Park among others. It will be released on Disney+ Hotstar on March 11.