Sai Pallavi says the decision to cut her hair short to play CBI officer in OM shocked her parents

OM also stars Dhanush, Mammootty, Sreeleela and Naseeruddin Shah. The film will release in theatres on November 20.

After playing Sita in Ramayana, which hits theatres on November 6, Sai Pallavi is set to explore a very different role in OM: Chapter 1 – Udhiram: The Blood Wood. The actor plays a CBI officer tasked with investigating the illegal red sandalwood trade. For the role, Sai had to cut her hair short for the part, which came as a shock to her parents. (Also read: After playing Sita in Ramayana, Sai Pallavi turns CBI officer to crack red sandalwood smuggling case in Dhanush and Mammootty's OM: Chapter 1)

What Sai said

Sai Pallavi's first glimpse as CBI officer Nithya Reddy in OM.

During an interaction with BehindWoodsTV, Sai shared why she chose to cut her hair short for the part. She said, “I cut my hair. After hearing the story and understanding how my character would be portrayed, I transformed myself to suit the role. I loved the story so much that I was willing to cut my hair for this particular character. After cutting my hair, I first revealed my new look to my mother through a video call. She was quite surprised and started asking me all sorts of questions, wondering why I had done it. She cut the call. Then my father called and asked if I was wearing a wig. I explained that it was entirely for the character. It took them quite some time to get used to my new hair.”

Sai added that she trusted Rajkumar and the script demanded this hairstyle, where the look will be apt for the film. Sai trusted the script and the director and said okay for cutting her hair. The actor also covered her hair with a scarf during the shoot so that the look did not get leaked so long before release.

Sai worked with Rajkumar in his debut film Amaran. The film was a huge success and even earned him the National Award for Best Director.

About OM

Directed by Rajkumar Periasamy, OM: Chapter 1 stars Dhanush as a woodcutter, with Mammootty in a pivotal role. The cast also includes Sreeleela and Sanjay Swaroop. Naseeruddin Shah is part of the project too, marking his debut in Tamil cinema.

Dhanush is producing the film under his Wunderbar Films banner, alongside Shraddha Agrawal and Azmat Jagmag, with RTake Studios backing the project. The technical team includes composer Sai Abhyankkar, cinematographer Ezhil Arasu K and editor R. Kalaivanan. Yannick Ben and Kecha Khamphakdee are choreographing the action sequences.