Pawan Kalyan proposed to me first: Renu Desai

Ever since her separation with Pawan Kalyan, Renu Desai chose to maintain a stoic silence surrounding her personal life; staying put in her native place Pune did help. Though she did drop by Hyderabad to promote her flick ‘Ishq Wala Love’ very recently, the media was advised not to pose any personal questions to her. However, Renu, a mother of two, finally decided to spill the beans surrounding her divorce and subsequent incidents, to YouTube on account of her birthday Thursday.

Renu who kicked off her Telugu cinema career with ‘Badri’, said that it was love at first sight for her the moment she saw Pawan Kalyan. “However, it was Kalyan who proposed first; it’s a weird love story,” she said. “It did take some time for me to convince my parents to get married to him as he was yet to get divorce from his first wife at that time. I had to make my family understand that I wouldn’t have got a better man than him.” She added that before she decided to move in with Kalyan, she wanted four kids from him. “I wanted a houseful of kids. Mothering comes quite naturally to me. Guess I was destined to have only two in the end.”

Admitting the separation was tough, the model-turned-actress said, “We both know what happened between us. The reasons are as weird as our love story. I understand that celebrities owe an explanation to fans but we are human beings too; there are certain things that you can’t share with everyone including to your friends; such things always remain personal. The good thing is that everybody is aware of the fact that we didn’t have a bitter divorce.”

Renu said that she stood by Pawan throughout her marital life. “When ‘Johnny’ didn’t do well at the box office, a few distributors came home and gave him his remuneration. He then came to me and said, “What should I do with this cheque now that the film hasn’t done well?” I was 21 then when he asked this question. The only thing that I said to him was to follow his heart,” recalled Desai.

She got emotional when she said that she is yet to come to terms with the fact that she is divorced. “It is painful but I’m learning to live with it each new day. My friends advised me to get married again but I don’t think I can do it. At a young age of 18 I took a decision to stick with the person who I love but destiny had other plans for me.”

She admitted that her children – Akira Nandan and Aadya – were affected by the separation. “The good thing is they’ve never seen us fight; barely did we ever fight. They’ve seen a healthy relationship. For Akira it was difficult, as we decided to lead our individual lives. However, he gradually adjusted as time progressed,” Renu explained adding, “We may no longer be husband and wife but we are parents for life.”