Sai Pallavi

Sai Pallavi Senthamarai Kannan (born 9 May 1992) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam films. She has received numerous accolades, including six Filmfare Awards South and two South Indian International Movie Awards. She was featured by Forbes magazine as one of India's 30 Under 30 in 2020.

After appearing in uncredited roles as a junior artist, she made her major acting debut in the 2015 Malayalam film Premam. The film ranked as the second highest-grossing Malayalam film at the time and her portrayal of a teacher earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Actress – Malayalam. In 2017, she ventured into Telugu cinema with Fidaa. Pallavi won her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for her performance in the film.

Pallavi has since established herself as a leading South Indian actress. She has received praises for her portrayals in the films — Kali (2016), Middle Class Abbayi (2017), Maari 2 (2018), Athiran (2019), the Netflix anthology film Paava Kadhaigal (2020), Love Story (2021), Shyam Singha Roy (2021), and Gargi (2022). Her performances in Love Story and Gargi earned the Filmfare Award for Best Actress in both Telugu and Tamil. And in Shyam Singha Roy and Virata Parvam gained her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Telugu.

Early life and work
Sai Pallavi was born on 9 May 1992 in a Badaga family in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Her hometown is Kotagiri in the Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu. Born to Senthamarai Kannan and Radha, she has a younger sister, Pooja Kannan, who has also worked as an actress. She was raised and educated in Coimbatore, doing her schooling at Avila Convent School.

Despite completing her medical studies in 2016 from the Tbilisi State Medical University, which is recognised by the Medical Council of India, she has not yet registered as a medical practitioner in India. She took her Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) on 31 August 2020 in Trichy. Besides Badaga, Pallavi can speak fluently in Tamil, English, Hindi and Georgian. She later learnt Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada languages for following a career in her respective cinema industries.

Pallavi said in an interview that though she was not a trained dancer, but she always wanted to do something that involved dancing. She participated in several cultural events at school, gaining popularity as a dancer. Due to her passion for dance, which was supported by her mother, she participated in the dance reality show Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Deva on Vijay TV in 2008, and was a finalist in Dhee Ultimate Dance Show (D4) on ETV in 2009. Pallavi appeared in uncredited roles as a child actress in Kasthuri Maan (2005) and Dhaam Dhoom (2008) and appeared in few advertisements.

Early work (2015–2016)
In 2014, while she was studying in Tbilisi, Georgia, film-director Alphonse Puthren had approached her six years before, through clippings from a reality show which she had participated, showcased in Facebook. Alphonse initially gave her an offer to act in his film which she refused, and after six years, he phoned to Pallavi, in which she thought him as a stalker and wanted to lodge a police complaint on him. But later misunderstood after Alphonse forcibly introduced himself. Then, She accepted the role of Malar in his film Premam. She shot the film over the holidays and, after the shooting finished, returned to her studies. She went on to win several "Best Female Debut" awards that year, including the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

Then she took a month break from her studies to act in her second Malayalam film, Kali, which released in March 2016 and directed by Sameer Thahir. The film was a critical and commercial success, and was later remade in Kannada and Marathi. She portrayed Anjali, a young wife who must deal with her husband's extreme anger issues, earning a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Malayalam.

Career expansion and fluctuations (2017–present)
The year 2017 marked her debut in Telugu with Sekhar Kammula's Fidaa, in the role of Bhanumathi, a feisty village girl from Telangana. Her performance in the film is regarded as one of the "100 Greatest Performances of the Decade" by Film Companion. She went onto win her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu. Then she starred in the 2017 Telugu action comedy film Middle Class Abbayi alongside Nani, the film was a critical and commercial success.

Her next release, Tamil–Telugu bilingual film Diya had an average run at the box office. Later, she starred in the Tamil film Maari 2, a sequel to Maari (2015), opposite Dhanush, directed by Balaji Mohan. A song from the film, "Rowdy Baby", set a record by becoming the first south Indian and Tamil song to clock over 1.5 Billion views on YouTube.

Pallavi started shooting in February 2018 for the film Padi Padi Leche Manasu with Sharwanand, which was a huge commercial failure. In December, several news outlets reported that she refused to accept her full remuneration, expressing solidarity with the producers for the failure of the film.

In 2019, she played Nithya Lakshmi, a non-verbal autistic character, in the 2019 psychological Malayalam thriller Athiran opposite Fahadh Faasil. Her next film in Tamil with actor Suriya, directed by Selvaraghavan titled NGK, released on 31 May 2019.

In 2020, she was recognised by Forbes magazine as one of India's 30 under 30. She was the only person from film industry in that list. She also acted in a Netflix anthology film series Paava Kadhaigal segment Oor Iravu directed by Vetrimaaran.

In 2021, she starred in the romantic drama Love Story directed by Sekhar Kammula alongside Naga Chaitanya in her second collaboration with Sekhar Kammula after Fidaa (2017) and Shyam Singa Roy opposite Nani in their second collaboration after MCA where she portrayed Maithreyi, a captivating devadasi in 1970s Kolkata. Her performances in both Love Story and Shyam Singha Roy earned her the Critics Award and the Best Actress award at the Filmfare Awards South.

In 2022 she appeared in Telugu film Virata Parvam opposite Rana Daggubati. Set against the backdrop of the Naxalite movement in 1990s Telangana where she portrayed Vennela. Director Gautham Ramachandran announced his new female-oriented film, who earlier directed Richie (2017). Pallavi was chosen to play a lead after Jyothika denied. The film was announced on 9 May 2022 with the makers releasing a special glimpse of the film. For her Tamil film Gargi, she dubbed her own lines in both Telugu and Kannada.

Her upcoming film includes Sivakarthikeyan's Amaran, and Naga Chaitanya's 23rd film.

She will make Hindi debut, opposite Junaid Khan. Pallavi will next portray Sita, opposite Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, in Nitesh Tiwari's adaptation of the Ramayana.

In the media


Film journalist Subha J Rao noted that she brings "freshness" on screen and added, "Sai Pallavi comes across as someone unafraid to flaunt her unconventional looks, offbeat film choices and lack of pretence." Rediff.com placed her second in its "Top 5 Malayalam Actresses" list of 2016, with Vijay George stating that she "stole everyone’s hearts" in Premam. In 2020, Pallavi became the only actress to feature in Forbes India's 30 under 30 list. She stood at the 20th place in its most influential stars on Instagram in South cinema for the year 2021 list.

Pallavi has once rejected a whopping ₹2 crore endorsement deal for a fairness cream brand. She cited her disapproval of the message fairness creams promote and her own preference for natural beauty as reasons for declining the offer.

In June 2022 in an interview with GreatAndhra, she commented that the film The Kashmir Files portrayed the killings of Kashmiri Pandits, during the 1990 exodus, and further asked if that is a religious conflict then what should be the difference between itself and cow vigilantism, referring to a recent incident where a Muslim was driving cows was beaten up and later forced to chant "Jai Shri Ram". The interview soon went viral and attracted criticism online. She later issued a clarification statement on her Instagram handle that her statements in the interview were misunderstood, and that she would neither trivialize a tragedy nor be comfortable with mob lynchings.

Accloades
Pallavi has won six Filmfare Awards South from seven nominations — Best Female Debut – South for Premam, Best Actress – Telugu for Fidaa and Love Story, and Critics Best Actress – Telugu for Shyam Singha Roy and Virata Parvam, and Best Actress – Tamil for Gargi.