Premam, a 2015 Malayalam movie directed by Alphonse Puthren and starring Nivin Pauly and Sai Pallavi, gained a cult following. In a recent interview, Sai credited the director and his film for helping her feel good about the way she looked. Before she recorded with Alphonse for Premam, Sai said that she was “a very insecure person.”
In conversation with Film Companion, Sai averred, “I was a very insecure person. I had a lot of doubts about everything like any teenager. My voice, the way I look, my acne, all of that. But I know that when a director picks you for a film, he has so much of hope and confidence in you that ‘this girl is something’, and when the audience cheers for you…I saw them clap, and I was like ‘it is just me on screen, they are clapping for me’. It was a very surreal moment. So, I realised that people love you beyond your skin, how you are as a person in the sense of the physical aspect… that helped me become much more confident as a person… I feel confident right now because of Alphonse.”
Sai claimed in the same interview that she rarely wears makeup in movies and that no director she has worked with has ever requested that she do so. Fans frequently compliment Sai on her natural appearance. In fact, since since she made an appearance in the Malayalam movie Premam, her acne has been the centre of attention. She reportedly turned down a huge quantity of money in exchange for endorsing a face cream in 2019, according to certain sources.
According to several speculations, Sai, along with Allu Arjun, Fahadh Faasil, and Rashmika Mandanna, may have a significant role in the second installment of the Telugu movie Pushpa: The Rule.