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What do we really mean when we call someone an overnight success?
For Claresta Taufan, 2025 is the year when everything aligned.
On screen, she has headlined three feature films in just two months: as the protagonist in Maryam, directed by Azhar Kinoi Lubis; as part of a star-studded ensemble in Netflix’s zombie thriller, Abadi Nan Jaya (The Elixir) by Kimo Stamboel; and as the lead in Pangku (On Your Lap), directed by Reza Rahadian.
Off-screen, her ascent continues. She has been nominated for a Citra Award for Best Leading Actress; honored with a Rising Star Award from Marie Claire Asia Star Awards at the 2025 Busan International Film Festival (BIFF); and appointed festival ambassador for Jakarta Film Week.
To most, Claresta embodies Indonesia’s next big screen generation: young, talented, seemingly effortless.
But behind the headlines lies nearly a decade of work, a lifetime of discipline forged through martial arts and the humbling list of rejections.
Her craft wasn’t born in film school; it was shaped on a karate mat.
So what does it really take to arrive in the spotlight at exactly the right moment? What do we overlook when we call someone an “overnight success”?
From karate mats to movie sets
“Nothing is instant,” she says.
Before Claresta was an actress, she was a fighter, literally. At 20, she competed in the 2016 Pekan Olahraga Nasional (National Sports Week) as a karate athlete, a sport she had practiced since she was eight.
“If I want something, I have to work for it,” she says.
That early discipline became her creative compass and unexpectedly her entry point into the entertainment industry.
Between training sessions and university classes, Claresta moonlighted as a sportscaster, her first brush with television. Around the same time, she began auditioning. But she was almost never chosen. The rejections stacked up, endless and disheartening.
Because of this, her parents stayed unconvinced. Once, she even turned down a promising project because her father wouldn’t allow her to take time off college.
Still, she didn’t give up. She moved on from the project but never stopped trying. Claresta learned to treat each rejection like a sparring match: painful, yes, but essential to the craft.
Karate taught her that. For Claresta, karate is more than a sport, it’s a philosophy of life. Even loss carried a lesson. Every setback, a new rhythm of resilience.
Through those years, she began to see that perhaps the roles she didn’t get were simply the ones she needed to grow into first.
But that doesn’t mean she never thought of quitting.
When persistence meets doubt
By 2023, the blows started to land.
“I almost gave up,” she says.
After college, the stakes felt higher. Rejections came harder and faster, creeping into her sense of self. She began to doubt. Maybe, she thought, the film industry wasn’t for her.
But her friends, fellow actors and filmmakers, kept her going.
Claresta now sees she’s here not just because she loves performing, but because she loves the people around her. A supportive environment became her lifeline, especially her mother’s quiet encouragement.
And then Pangku happened.
Claresta never imagined she would star in the lead role for Reza Rahadian’s feature directorial debut. She plays Sartika, a single mother who takes a job in a traditional coffee shop, serving men by sitting on their laps.
The film struck a nerve. It won four awards at the BIIF and is now a major contender at the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI) with seven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Claresta Taufan.
Her perseverance finally met its moment.
Building space for women
Throughout her journey, Claresta has often found herself surrounded by women telling women’s stories.
Most recently, she worked with emerging director Praditha Blifa in Period of Her, an omnibus project by Forka Films.
She notes that women are just as capable as men, and her role as Jakarta Film Week’s festival ambassador only reinforced that conviction.
![At a press conference on Sept. 30, Jakarta Film Week 2025 spotlighted the women behind the scenes [from left to right]: Vivian Idris, Rina Damayanti, Claresta Taufan, Novi Hanabi and Gayatri Nadya.](https://img.jakpost.net/c/2025/10/22/2025_10_22_167964_1761098055._medium.jpg)
At the festival’s press conference, she sat among an all-woman panel of leaders.
“Did you see that all of the panelists are women?” she grins. “I have seen so many strong women who never complain.”
Claresta never doubts women’s ability to lead. She grew up watching her mother, a corporate leader who balanced authority with compassion, show her that strength doesn’t require volume.
She believes cinema needs more stories like Pangku, which centers on working-class women like Sartika, narratives that rarely compete on equal footing with mainstream blockbusters.
This is where alternative screenings and festival circuits fill the gap. Programs like Period of Her or Jakarta Film Week’s Herstory strand are designed to hold space for such stories.
It’s a good start. Claresta remains optimistic about the industry’s future. With the right aspirations and the right support system, she believes filmmaking can still be a beautiful, collaborative craft.
She hopes to one day work with directors like Kamila Andini and explore other branches of storytelling, writing, directing, perhaps even producing.
For now, though, she stands exactly where she’s meant to be: a woman who turned rejections into resilience.
From the girl who once couldn’t convince her parents, to an actress who now carries their trust, and her own, with confidence.
Her success wasn’t built in a day. It simply arrived at the right time, one that Claresta spent years preparing for.
