Senthamarai Kannan - Father of Sai Pallavi: Age, Football Career, Family and Retirement (Full Sourced Profile)

Senthamarai Kannan was born on 14 July 1964. Sai Pallavi marked his sixtieth year on 14 July 2024 with a birthday tribute that remains the fullest public portrait of him. As of 2026, he is 62.

He belongs to a Badaga family with ancestral roots in Kotagiri, the Nilgiris. The household that raised Sai Pallavi and her younger sister Pooja made its lasting home in Coimbatore, a house the family calls Sai Anugraha. He is married to Radha Kannan. Their daughters are Sai Pallavi Senthamarai, born 9 May 1992, and Pooja Kannan, born on 21 April 1997, who married Vineeth Sivakumar on 5 September 2024.

College and the Pitch

In the Behindwoods interview with Gobinath (October 2024, around the 13 minute mark), Sai Pallavi said her father studied at Madras Christian College, Chennai, a detail that lines up with the Chennai years of his football career.

Sports journalist T.N. Raghu recorded on X on 21 November 2018 that Senthamarai Kannan played as a forward for Universal FC in the Chennai Super Division in the early 1980s.

After Premam released in 2015, Sai Pallavi told The Times of India that her father grew emotional over calls "after 27 years" from collegemates who recognised his daughter on screen.

The 9-to-5, and the Question She Asked Him

The clearest window into who he is comes from the Pearle Maaney Show (click here to watch), and as printed in full by Indian Express Malayalam on 30 October 2024.

"If my legs broke, as a dancer, would I come back and dance? I don't know. I don't think I have that much willpower."Sai Pallavi, on her father's recovery from injury

She has said he met that loss with grace, and that he treated the whole passage, the injury, the desk job, the decades that followed, as though none of it had been a hardship worth dwelling on.

Service, Postings, Retirement

He served in Central Excise, later under GST, and was described at his farewell as Assistant Commissioner of GST and Central Excise. In the same Behindwoods conversation, Sai Pallavi named his postings across his career: Maraimalai Nagar, Hosur, and finally Coimbatore, with the department itself touched on around the 15 minute mark of the Gobinath series.

Coimbatore is where the family put down roots for good: her schooling, the house where director Alphonse Puthren first brought the Premam script, and the city where her father's career closed.

A retirement ceremony was held in Coimbatore around 30 April 2024. Sai Pallavi and Radha Kannan attended; fan pages, including @SaipallaviFC on X, posted photographs the following day. On the Pearle Maaney show, Sai Pallavi confirmed he turned 60 and retired that same year.

The Wedding

When Pooja Kannan married Vineeth Sivakumar on 5 September 2024, Sai Pallavi spoke about her parents in a video shared on Instagram. She said her mother was the sturdier of the two that evening, while her father was far more emotional. She described him as very deeply attached to Pooja, and said she genuinely wasn't sure what he was feeling in that moment.

"Mom is a little more stronger, but dad is too emotional, and very deeply attached to Pooja."Sai Pallavi, on her parents at Pooja's wedding

Faith

The family's life is anchored by devotion. The Kannans are ardent followers of Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, a faith that has shaped the household's values of humility and gratitude far more visibly than it has shaped any public statement.

The Birthday Note

On 14 July 2024, Sai Pallavi marked her father's sixtieth birthday on Instagram with a photograph and a short note. She thanked him for the peaceful life the family had, and for passing on his footballer's legs alongside the migraines she also inherited. She wrote that he used to sing Hotel California to her and Pooja as children, calling it the first English song she ever heard.

"So sensitive and yet so strong."Sai Pallavi, describing her father on his 60th birthday

The same post recalled that when Alphonse Puthren arrived in Coimbatore with the Premam script, her father had not wanted her to act while she was studying medicine. After hearing more about the role, he asked whether she was truly right for it, and then gave his consent, a moment Onmanorama reported in June 2015.

Despite the monumental heights of stardom, the entire family has never lost touch with their roots. Those who have crossed paths with them often speak of their genuine warmth, a true reflection of the values they practise off screen. SaiPallaviCanvas

For the Record

He has not given interviews of his own. Everything above is drawn from what his daughter has chosen to say on record, from an independent sports journalism source, and from the public retirement ceremony his family attended.