Sai Pallavi – Malar of south Indian cinema

Sai Pallavi is a popular actress associated with south Indian cinema, known to be an epitome of natural beauty and talent. She shot to instant fame and super stardom after playing the lead role of a college guest lecturer Malar in 2014 Malayalam cult classic – Premam. She played one among the three female leads opposite Nivin Pauly, and her role as Tamil speaking heroine was most appreciated. In fact she earned a huge following crowd across south India and star status equivalent to Nivin Pauley following the film release. She is also a professional dancer and medical doctor, who successfully succeeded a career in films. Kali opposite Dulquer Salman and Athiran opposite Fahadh Fasil are her other releases in Malayalam. She has also done films in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Fida, NGK, Mari-2 etc are her noted releases in other south Indian languages.

Sai Pallavi was born in Kotagiri of Nilgiris in 1992 and brought up in Coimbatore. Her father Chenthaamara Kannan is a former footballer. She has a younger sister. Since young she is interested in dance forms, though she is not formally trained in it. She came to limelight for the first time when she participated in the dance reality show Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhudeva during her higher secondary days and emerged as winner. She also participated in Dhee 5, dance show, and both these shows made her popular among Tamil audiences. She joined medicine in Tbilisi State Medical University, Georgia aside her cousin, and her debut flick Premam released during her final year.

The iconic ‘Malare’ song from Premam

When Alphonse Putharen casted her in the main lead for Premam her face was full of pimples. Though she wanted to remove it, the director wanted a pimpled heroine, and after the film’s release ‘Lover with pimples’ became a fantasy for all youngster boys of Kerala and its neighbouring states. Sai is known for her no-makeup principle, and that’s the reason why she gained popularity for her next-door girl looks. The romantic song ‘Malare…’ also became a rage among youth. From there on, she has been choosy in her roles, and played only meaty ones.

Sai Pallavi – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She is a great follower of Sai Baba. In fact she was named so by none other than Sai Baba at Puttaparti Ashram. 

2. Though she belongs to a traditional Baduka community, she and her sister were brought up as modern girls.

3. Sai is quite known for not endorsing beauty products like fairness creams. In 2018 she came to limelight when she rejected the offer of a beauty brand, worth crores.

4. She is not a trained dancer. Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai are her role models in dancing and Sai followed their steps. Among classical dancers, she watched Shobana’s dance moves most.

5. After winning the dance reality show, Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhudeva, she got many film offers. But she wanted to complete her studies first. She was doing her doctor course when she marked her screen debut through Premam.

6. Complete shooting of Premam was done when she was on a vacation trip in India, while studying medicine.

7. Premam with a single hero and three heroines was a runaway hit across South India, where characters of Nivin Pauley and Sai Pallavi were appreciated most. Yet when the movie was remade to Telugu with the same title, both Anupama Parameswaran and Madonna Sebastian reprised their roles, while Sai was replaced by Shruti Hassan in a glamorous role. It attributed to film’s failure too.

8. Actually Premam is not her screen debut, but it’s Kasthuri Maan. She has played brief roles in Tamil films – Kasthuri Maan and Dham Dhoom during her childhood days.

9. She rarely uses comb for hair. Instead she uses her fingers. She doesn’t use beauty products for hair and still uses oil prepared using hibiscus flowers and curry leaves.

10. Her debut film Premam accumulated her numerous awards for best female debut in Malayalam.  She won Filmfare award for best actress in Telugu for 2017 film, Fida.