She made her first film appearance in Saravanan's second film Ivan Veramathiri (2013) featuring Vikram Prabhu. After being recommended to seek acting opportunities in the South Indian film industry, Surabhi successfully auditioned for Ivan Veramathiri and was selected to play the leading female role of Malini, a cute and timid girl.[3] During the making of the film, the director gave particular praise to Surabhi for her dedication in learning the dialogues in Tamil and putting in extra effort to ensure her diction was correct.[4] The film opened in December 2013 to positive reviews and performed well at the box office. Surabhi's performance was praised by critics, who noted that "her smile is arresting" and that "she is perfectly cast and brightens up all the scenes she appears in with her bubbly, innocent character and seems totally natural and fresh."[5][6] She was subsequently nominated in the Best Female Debutant category at the Vijay Awards and South Indian International Movie Awards.
