Life is full of surprises and that definitely holds true for Sai Pallavi. A god fearing, mommy’s daughter, Sai Pallavi is ruling the roost in the film world. She dons many hats -a qualified doctor, a terrific dancer and now a talented actor. The dance sequence in Premam is an iconic scene now with many even trying to copy it. Sai Pallavi gets candid about her dance journey in an exclusive interview with JFW.

“The first dance competition I participated in, I failed miserably.”

Ask her about dancing and she fills the room with infectious energy. Though dancing happened out of sheer interest, she always knew she would pursue it as made her very happy. “We all needed a hobby when we are kids – some like to play games, some learn to sing, and I liked to dance. In fact, the first competition I participated in, I failed miserably.So that just led me to believe that I wasn’t good enough.” Pallavi was all of six when this happened and her mother couldn’t stand to see her daughter upset. “She would play all the Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai numbers, so I started picking up their steps and imitated their dance. So, when I was in my 4^th standard I won a dance competition at school, which felt great. It shot up my morale and I went on to participate in various inter-school dance competitions.”

“I realized that pursuing dance as a passion is more important than any competition.”

Her mother would try and stop her from watching all the promos for ‘Ungalil yaar Adutha Prabhudheva’ because she was worried that she might want to be a part of it.But as fate would have it, Sai Pallavi did participate. “I qualified till the semi-finals where I was competing against proper choreographers. At this point, I had no energy or the will to go forward. The competition was very tough, not just in terms of the dancing but the amount of work I had to put in. I dance for happiness, not for winning. As long as I got to dance, wear beautiful costumes and get appreciated, I was more than happy with what I was doing. It didn’t matter much if I won or not.” The stint did not end there. After she finished her 12^th standard, she participated in a Telugu dance competition called ‘Dhee 4 Ladies Special’.Again, she reached the semi-finals but did not go forward in the competition. “Until you have fun, you enjoy it but once it becomes work and there is that pressure to win, the stress of it just only kills your interest. I realized that pursuing dance as a passion is more important than any competition. By this time, a lot of people seemed to like me for who I was and I was happy with just being loved.”