Actress and filmmaker Renu Desai has said that 14 years after her divorce from actor and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, she is still unable to escape being defined as his ex-wife, comparing her situation to the exile of Lord Ram and asking when it will end.

Speaking on the Visual Talks podcast, Renu Desai addressed the persistent public perception that she exists only in relation to Pawan Kalyan and pushed back against the idea that she was nobody before or after their marriage. She said Telugu audiences treat her as though her life began when she arrived in Hyderabad for the Pawan Kalyan-starrer Badri and that nothing she did before or since registers with them.

“For Telugu people, here’s something about my life. I was born only in June 1999, when I came for Badri. Before that, I didn’t really have a life. That’s how people do it,” she said. “It’s been 14 years. Even Lord Ram was in exile, but for only 14 years.…