Sai Pallavi created ripples in the industry with her debut film Premam. She was appreciated for her simplicity as the coy teacher but more so for her no-make up look in the film. Her curly hair, her natural skin and the absolutely make-up free Sai Pallavi struck a chord with the audiuence immediately. While everyone wondered why Sai Pallavi chose to shoot without any make up, she has a funny story to tell.
After meeting Alphonse Puthiran and discussing doing the film, she headed back to Georgia to finish a semester because the shooting was scheduled for her next vacation. She had 6 months before the shooting began.
Sai Pallavi says, “Alphonse isn’t somebody who keeps in touch very often. He messaged me once in 2 months or so. I was happy eating chocolates, sweets and all that I shouldn’t have in order to prevent more pimples. Towards the end of that semester in college, he sent me the script. Just to confirm, I sent back a picture of me so that he knew how I looked. I even asked him whether I should get treated for my skin or cut my hair or start using make up but he had the role sketched in his mind and did not pay any heed to my anxiety.”
When Pallavi tried using make up for her role, Alphonse rejected it without giving it a single thought. He wanted Malar to be this ordinary, simple girl with long locks and an earnest smile. His brief was simple.
“Not just make up, he was very particular that I stayed natural in my acting too. After all the shooting, when it came to dubbing for the film, I would recite my lines in a lower pitch in an attempt to sound more feminine and he would scream at me. I have husky voice and I was worried that would ruin my part. One day, after dubbing, I called to order food in my hotel and this guy calls me Sir, mistaking me for a man. I immediately called Alphonse and begged him to get a dubbing artist. He asked me to shut up and disconnected my call.”
Contrary to what she thought, Malar was liked for those exact qualities; the demure young teacher will always stay in our hearts as the Malare girl.
Life changed for Sai Pallavi overnight after Premam released. She recites another one of her stories about how she came to terms with the success that the movie and she had received overnight. She logged into Facebook and that is when it hit her that she had become a sensation with Premam.
“I got a message alert that said inbox full and unable to receive any more messages. I clicked on my messages only to find pages, fake accounts and fan pages. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I thought it was a dream. I called up my mom since she had no idea about the response the movie had received since she was in Tamil Nadu. And that’s when she made her Facebook account just to check out the madness online. After all this, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing.”