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Why Sai Pallavi is the Priyanka Chopra Jonas of South India, from challenging colourism and skin whitening creams to spots on Forbes’ power lists

STORYCarla Thomas
Doctor-turned-actress Sai Pallavi, South India’s answer to Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Photo: @saipallavi.senthamarai/Instagram
Doctor-turned-actress Sai Pallavi, South India’s answer to Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Photo: @saipallavi.senthamarai/Instagram
Fame and celebrity

  • Pallavi learnt to dance by watching Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit while PC made singles with Pitbull and The Chainsmokers
  • Her music video for Rowdy Baby from the Tamil movie Maari 2 was the first South Indian song to get one billion views on YouTube

With beauty, brains and some serious dance moves, Sai Pallavi isn’t your average budding starlet. Discovered while she was studying medicine in Europe, the soon-to-be doctor made a huge splash when she made her award-winning debut in the 2015 Malayalam-language movie Premam.

Sai Pallavi. Photo: @saipallavi.senthamarai/Instagram
Sai Pallavi. Photo: @saipallavi.senthamarai/Instagram
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Her star has only risen since then, and the 28-year-old has become the reigning queen of the South Indian film industry. With natural charm and skills at her fingertips, we couldn’t help but notice how much she reminded us of a certain legendary Bollywood-turned-Hollywood actress.

Here are a few reasons why Sai Pallavi is giving us some serious Priyanka Chopra vibes.

Entertainment wasn’t her first choice in career

 

Just like Chopra (who has said she planned to study aeronautical engineering before her entertainment career unexpectedly took off), Pallavi never thought that she’d have a career on the big screen. Instead, she made plans to pursue her dreams of becoming a doctor, attending medical school in Tbilisi, Georgia where she graduated with her MBBS (dual degrees in medical and surgery) in 2016.

She’s been on a Forbes list