Sai Pallavi (born 9 May 1992) is an Indian actress and dancer who works mainly in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam films. A qualified doctor, she became an overnight star as Malar in the Malayalam film Premam (2015). She is known for her dancing, for acting with little or no make-up and for turning down advertisements for fairness creams. Her films include Fidaa, Maari 2, Love Story, Gargi and Amaran, and she plays Sita in Nitesh Tiwari’s Hindi epic Ramayana.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Sai Pallavi Senthamarai Kannan |
| Born | 9 May 1992, Kotagiri, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Age | 34 |
| Education | MBBS, Tbilisi State Medical University, Georgia |
| Occupation | Actress, dancer |
| Languages | Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi |
| Years active | 2015–present (lead roles) |
| Sibling | Pooja Kannan (actress) |
| Known for | Premam, Fidaa, Love Story, Gargi, Amaran |
Early Life
Sai Pallavi was born in Kotagiri in the Nilgiris hills to a family from the Badaga community, and grew up in Coimbatore. She loved dancing from childhood and took part in TV dance reality shows, including Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Deva on Vijay TV and the Telugu show Dhee. She also appeared briefly in a few Tamil films as a teenager. She then went to Georgia to study medicine at Tbilisi State Medical University, graduating in 2016.
Career
Director Alphonse Puthren cast her as Malar, a college lecturer, in Premam (2015) while she was still a medical student. The film was a huge hit in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and her natural look and acne-prone skin, shown without heavy make-up, were widely praised. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut – South. She followed it with the Malayalam film Kali (2016).
Her Telugu debut, Sekhar Kammula’s Fidaa (2017), was a big hit and won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu. In Tamil, her dance with Dhanush in the song “Rowdy Baby” from Maari 2 (2018) became one of the most-watched Indian videos on YouTube. She went on to star in Love Story (2021), Shyam Singha Roy (2021), Virata Parvam (2022) and the Tamil legal drama Gargi (2022), which critics called one of her best performances.
In the Tamil war film Amaran (2024) she played Indhu Rebecca Varghese, the wife of the Ashoka Chakra recipient Major Mukund Varadarajan; the film was a major hit. She starred with Naga Chaitanya again in Thandel (2025). She was then cast as Sita opposite Ranbir Kapoor‘s Rama in Nitesh Tiwari’s two-part Ramayana, one of the most expensive Indian films ever made.
Personal Life
Sai Pallavi lives with her family in Coimbatore and keeps her private life out of the media. Her younger sister, Pooja Kannan, is also an actress. She has said she turned down a large offer to endorse a fairness cream because she does not want to promote ideas that dark skin is less beautiful.
Awards and Honours
Selected Filmography
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Sai Pallavi born?
Sai Pallavi was born on 9 May 1992 in Kotagiri, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India and is 34 years old.
What is Sai Pallavi known for?
Known for: Premam, Fidaa, Love Story, Gargi, Amaran.
Featured image: Sai Pallavi at a promotional event for Ramayana, 2026. Photo by Bollywood Hungama, licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
