Actor and dancer Saniya Iyappan has opened up about facing emotional isolation and cyberbullying during her time at an acting school in London. In a candid interview with the YouTube channel I Am With Dhanya Varma, the 22-year-old revealed how the experience left her mentally distressed, often making her cry alone in her room.

Saniya had travelled to the UK to pursue a three-year acting course at a film-focused university, having earned a scholarship by submitting an application that included a performance from the Filmfare Awards. She was the only student from India in her batch, and hoped to gain a new perspective on acting while studying abroad.

“From the very first day, after introductions, the professor’s behaviour felt slightly negative,” she recalled. “But I stayed calm and moved on. Days passed, but no one made an effort to talk to me. When it came time to pair up for assignments, nobody wanted to work with me.”

At first, she thought her accent might be the reason. “Later I realised it wasn’t about that at all. I started feeling mentally depressed. Unlike back home, where I at least had people to check on me, in London I would just cry alone in my room,” she said.

Eventually, she shared her concerns with the university, which offered her a full refund of the tuition fees. “If they hadn’t refunded the fee, I might’ve stayed and continued. But I don’t regret my decision to leave,” she said, adding that someone later fabricated stories about her experience online. “I looked into it and found out the person who claimed to be from the same university wasn’t even enrolled there.”