Sai Pallavi has been caught up in a targeted online attack by Hindu nationalists, who are claiming that the actor ‘insulted’ the Indian Army. A trimmed clip, taken out of context from an old interview, is doing the rounds, in which Sai Pallavi speaks about her views on violence. The controversy comes ahead of the release of  Amaran, starring Sai Pallavi alongside Sivakarthikeyan.

In the clip, Sai Pallavi explains why she believes violence cannot be an answer to a problem, adding that there are different perspectives in a conflict. “People in Pakistan think our Army are terrorists. Because from their point of view, they are being harmed. We feel the same about them. Perspectives are different, but I do not understand violence,” she says in the interview. This clip is now widely being circulated by right-wing groups in an attempt to establish that the actor tried to insult the Indian Army. 

The clip is from a 2022 interview for the Telugu film Virata Parvam which was set in the backdrop of the Naxalite movement. Sai Pallavi was responding to a question on whether she had grown any sympathy for the movement.

The controversy over this particular line likely also has to do with the fact that Amaran is posthumous Ashoka Chakra awardee Major Mukund Vardarajan’s biopic. Major Mukund, who hailed from Tamil Nadu, died in 2014 during a cordon-and-search operation carried out in the Shopian district (Jammu & Kashmir) by the 44 Rashtriya Rifles. Sivakarthikeyan plays the role of Mukund and Sai Pallavi plays the role of Mukund’s wife Indhu Rebecca Varghese.

Earlier, in June 2022, her statement condemning mob lynchings by cow vigilantes, part of the same interview for which she is being targeted now, was also met with an online hate campaign. Sai Pallavi had said: “Some days ago, this movie The Kashmir Files was released. In that, they showed how Kashmiri Pandits living there at that time were killed. More recently, during COVID time....if you're taking it like a religious conflict, recently, a Muslim man was driving a vehicle transporting cows. Some people stopped him and hit him and forced him to chant slogans of Jai Shri Ram. So what happened then, and what happened now, we can't see any difference.”

At the time, the actor issued an apology after controversy broke, saying “she would never belittle a genocide”, but stuck to her stance on condemning cow vigilantism. 

Now, various right-wing handles have taken to X and other social media platforms to target the actor, positioning her as anti-Hindu and anti-national based on this interview from 2022. Though there have been no confirmed reports, Sai Pallavi is rumoured to be starring in an upcoming Bollywood adaptation of the Ramayana. The actor is said to play Sita with Ranbir Kapoor playing Ram, according to photos allegedly leaked from the film’s sets. In the ongoing attacks against Sai Pallavi, many have claimed that she does not ‘deserve’ the role now.  

Sai Pallavi, who enjoys immense popularity in the south, has been known to speak out about various social issues such as the NEET exam. On October 27, the actor visited the National War Memorial in New Delhi, after which she posted on social media: “I wanted to visit the #NationalWarMemorial before starting the promotions for #Amaran and went there a few days ago. This sacred temple that houses thousands of "brick-like-tablets" in the memory of every Braveheart, who has laid down their lives for us. I was brimming with emotions while paying respect to Major Mukund Varadarajan Ashoka Chakra (P) and Sepoy Vikram Singh Shaurya Chakra (P).”