I am wondering why didn't the word percolate to Punjabi language where we call the colour as "santri" and the fruit is called "santra". Hindi has the same word for it, I think.
Or to Kannada, where the fruit is called "kittaLe", despite also being classified a Dravidian language. Kannada and Telugu in general seem to have too many differences from Tamil and Malayalam to be lumped into a common bucket.
The color has always been referred to as "kesari" in Kannada, and translates to saffron.