Sai Pallavi facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sai Pallavi
Sai Pallavi in 2017
Born	Sai Pallavi Senthamarai Kannan (1992-05-09) 9 May 1992 (age 33) Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Alma mater	Tbilisi State Medical University (MBBS)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2005–present
Awards	Full list
Signature

Sai Pallavi Senthamarai Kannan (born May 9, 1992) is an Indian actress. She mainly acts in Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam films. Sai Pallavi is known for playing strong and brave female characters.

She has won many awards, including six Filmfare Awards South and two SIIMA Awards. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in South India. In 2020, Forbes magazine named her one of India's 30 Under 30 young achievers.

Sai Pallavi started her acting journey with small roles and dance shows. Her big break came in 2015 as Malar in the Malayalam film Premam. While she was still a medical student, her amazing performance in Premam won her a Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut – South. This helped her become famous in the South Indian film industry. In 2017, she started acting in Telugu films with Fidaa, where she won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu.

She has starred in many popular films like Kali (2016), Middle Class Abbayi (2017), Maari 2 (2018), Paava Kadhaigal (2020), Love Story (2021), Shyam Singha Roy (2021), Gargi (2022), Amaran (2024), and Thandel (2025). Her roles in Gargi and Love Story earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress in Tamil and Telugu. She also won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Telugu for her work in Shyam Singha Roy and Virata Parvam (2022).

Early Life and Education

Sai Pallavi was born on May 9, 1992, in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Her family is from Kotagiri in the Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu. Her parents are Senthamarai Kannan and Radha. She has a younger sister, Pooja Kannan, who is also an actress.

Pallavi grew up and went to school in Coimbatore at Avila Convent School. She studied medicine and graduated in 2016 from the Tbilisi State Medical University in Georgia. This university is recognized in India. She took her medical exam in India on August 31, 2020.

Besides her family language, Badaga, Sai Pallavi speaks Tamil, English, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Georgian.

Dance and Early Appearances

Sai Pallavi has said that even though she didn't have formal dance training, she always loved dancing. She took part in many cultural events at school. In 2008, she was a contestant in the dance reality show Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Deva on Vijay TV. In 2009, she was a finalist in Dhee Ultimate Dance Show (D4) on ETV.

Before becoming a lead actress, Pallavi had small, uncredited roles in films like Kasthuri Maan (2005) and Dhaam Dhoom (2008). She also appeared in a few advertisements.

Acting Career

First Steps in Film (2015–2016)

In 2014, while studying in Georgia, director Alphonse Puthren contacted Sai Pallavi about his film Premam. He had seen her in a reality show years before. She accepted the role of Malar in Premam. She filmed during her holidays and then went back to her studies. For this role, she won several "Best Female Debut" awards, including the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut – South.

After Premam, she took a month off from her studies to act in her second Malayalam film, Kali. This film was released in March 2016 and was directed by Sameer Thahir. Kali was a successful film. Sai Pallavi played Anjali, a young wife dealing with her husband's anger. Her performance earned her a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Malayalam.

Growing Popularity (2017–2019)

In 2017, Sai Pallavi made her debut in Telugu cinema with Sekhar Kammula's Fidaa. She played Bhanumathi, a strong village girl from Telangana. Her acting in this film is considered one of the "100 Greatest Performances of the Decade" by Film Companion. She won her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for Fidaa. After that, she starred in the 2017 Telugu action-comedy film Middle Class Abbayi with Nani. This film was also very successful.

Her next project was a Tamil film called Diya, which was also released in Telugu as Kanam. This was her first Tamil film after some earlier projects didn't work out. Diya had an average run at the box office.

In 2018, she starred in the Tamil film Maari 2, a sequel to Maari (2015), opposite Dhanush. A song from the movie, "Rowdy Baby", became very famous. It features Dhanush and Sai Pallavi dancing. Prabhu Deva and Jani Master choreographed the song. Sai Pallavi had been eliminated from a dance reality show years before, missing the chance to meet Prabhu Deva. She later shared that through this song, she finally got to meet and work with him. The "Rowdy Baby" video was uploaded on YouTube in January 2019 and became the first South Indian song to get over 1.5 Billion views.

In 2019, she played Nithya Lakshmi, a character who doesn't speak, in the Malayalam thriller Athiran with Fahadh Faasil. Even without much dialogue, she showed Nithya's feelings and struggles through her expressions. Her next Tamil film was NGK with actor Suriya, released on May 31, 2019. She played Geetha Kumari, a character who showed many emotions as her husband's political career changed. The film received mixed reviews but was a commercial success.

Established Actress (2020–Present)

Sai Pallavi also acted in Oor Iravu, a segment of the Netflix film series Paava Kadhaigal, directed by Vetrimaaran. She played Sumathi, a character in a difficult situation. For this role, she was nominated for a SIIMA Award for Best Supporting Actress – Tamil. In 2021, she starred in the romantic drama Love Story, directed by Sekhar Kammula. This was her second time working with Sekhar Kammula after Fidaa.

Her next film was Shyam Singa Roy, a period film with Nani. This was their second film together after MCA. She played Maithreyi, a dancer in 1970s Kolkata. A song from the movie, "Pranavalaya," showed off her dance skills and was highly praised. 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 the Telugu film Virata Parvam with Rana Daggubati. The film was set during the Naxalite movement in 1990s Telangana, and she played Vennela. For her Tamil film Gargi, she recorded her own lines in both Telugu and Kannada.

Her only film in 2024 was the Tamil movie Amaran, with Sivakarthikeyan. It was produced by Kamal Hassan and directed by Rajkumar Periyasamy. She played Indhu Rebecca Varghese, the wife of Major Mukund Varadarajan. Her acting in the film was praised for being very real and showing many complex emotions. The film became a sleeper hit, meaning it slowly gained popularity and became the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024. It received great reviews for its story, which was based on real events about an Indian army officer.

In her first film of 2025, Sai Pallavi played the lead female role opposite Naga Chaitanya in Thandel. This was their second film together after Love Story. The film was a commercial success. Her role as Satya showed her strong and engaging acting skills.

She will soon act in Hindi films, starting with Ek Din opposite Junaid Khan. Sai Pallavi will also play Sita in Nitesh Tiwari's two-part movie adaptation of the Ramayana, with Ranbir Kapoor as Rama.

Filmography

Films

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

List of films and roles

Year	Title	Role(s)	Language(s)	Notes
2005	Kasthuri Maan	Unnamed	Tamil	Uncredited
2008	Dhaam Dhoom
2015	Premam	Malar	Malayalam	Also choreographer
2016	Kali	Anjali
2017	Fidaa	Bhanumathi	Telugu
	Middle Class Abbayi	Pallavi / Chinni
2018	Diya	Thulasi	Tamil	Bilingual film
	Kanam		Telugu
	Padi Padi Leche Manasu	Vaishali Cherukuri
	Maari 2	"Araathu" Aanandhi Mariyappan	Tamil
2019	Athiran	Nithya Lakshmi	Malayalam
	NGK	Geetha Kumari	Tamil
2020	Paava Kadhaigal	Sumathi		Segment: "Oor Iravu"
2021	Love Story	Mounika Rani	Telugu
	Shyam Singha Roy	Rosie / Maithreyi
2022	Virata Parvam	Vennela
	Gargi	Gargi	Tamil
2024	Amaran	Indhu Rebecca Varghese
2025	Thandel	Koracha Sathya	Telugu
	Ek Din	Nisha	Hindi	Completed
2026	Ramayana: Part 1	Sita		Post-production
2027	Ramayana: Part 2			Filming

Television

Awards and Achievements

Sai Pallavi has won six Filmfare Awards South from seven nominations. These include:

• Best Female Debut – South for Premam
• Best Actress – Telugu for Fidaa and Love Story
• Critics Best Actress – Telugu for Shyam Singha Roy and Virata Parvam
• Best Actress – Tamil for Gargi

See also

In Spanish: Sai Pallavi para niños