“We all needed a hobby when we were kids – some liked to play games, some learned to sing, and I liked to dance. In fact, the first competition I participated in, I failed miserably. That just led me to be 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.
'My mother would play all the Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai numbers, so I started picking up their steps and imitated their moves. So, when I was in my 4th 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.'
Sai Pallavi’s tryst with dance did not end there. She continued to dance for her happiness and pleasure. But when she was a teenager, her mother wanted her to concentrate on academics more than dance and other activities. Her mother would try and stop her from watching all the promos for ‘Ungalilyaar Adutha Prabhudheva’ , a dance show that was all the rage during that time. But as fate would have it, Sai Pallavi did participate.
'I qualified till the semi finals where I was competing against professional choreographers. During that time, 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.'
After she finished her 12th 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 only kills your interest. I realized that pursuing dance as a passion was 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.'