Published Nov 10, 2026 | 12:27 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 10, 2026 | 12:38 PM
After 13 years of marriage, Pawan Kalyan and Anna Lezhneva released a joint statement on November 9, 2026, announcing their decision to separate.
Late on Monday, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan and his third wife, Anna Lezhneva, announced that they were parting ways.
The decision once again brought to the fore the marital woes that have beset the ‘Mega Family’ of Telugu cinema.
Not just Pawan Kalyan, but also Chiranjeevi’s daughters, brother Nagababu’s daughter Niharika, and sister Vijaya Durga have had to deal with separation.
Pawan Kalyan’s marital life has been in the spotlight from the beginning.
In 1997, he married Nandini from Visakhapatnam in an arranged marriage. After differences cropped up between the couple, they began living separately in 1999, and a court finalised their divorce in August 2008. Media reports at the time stated that ₹5 crore was paid as alimony.
Subsequently, Pawan Kalyan met actress Renu Desai during the filming of Badri, and their acquaintance blossomed into love.
The couple welcomed a son, Akira Nandan, in 2004. They got married on January 28, 2009, and had a daughter, Aadya, in 2010. However, this marriage did not last long either, and the two parted ways in 2012.
Following his separation from Renu Desai, Pawan Kalyan married Russian national Anna Lezhneva in September 2013 after meeting her during the shoot of the film Teen Maar in 2011. The couple have two children, Polena Anjana Pawanova and Mark Shankar Pawanovich.
After 13 years of marriage, Pawan Kalyan and Anna Lezhneva released a joint statement on November 9, 2026, announcing their decision to separate with mutual understanding and respect, while emphasising that their children’s well-being remains their shared priority.
They clarified that although their marital bond has ended, they will continue to remain good friends and devoted parents to their children. The reasons behind the separation were not disclosed, and there is no official confirmation yet that the legal divorce process has been completed.
The marriage of Chiranjeevi’s elder daughter, Sushmita, was also once a major topic of discussion in film circles. In 2003, she got engaged to prominent actor Uday Kiran, but the alliance was called off shortly thereafter. Although several reports speculated on the reasons, no official explanation was ever issued.
Later, on March 2, 2006, Sushmita married Chennai-based businessman Vishnu Prasad. The couple have two daughters.
Sushmita currently works in the film industry as a costume designer and producer, styling Chiranjeevi’s films and venturing into film production.
She was also recently appointed as a special invitee to the Vijayawada Kanaka Durga Temple Trust Board.
The marriage of Chiranjeevi’s younger daughter, Sreeja, sparked widespread discussion in 2007. At the age of 19, she went against her family’s wishes and married Sirish Bharadwaj at the Arya Samaj in Hyderabad, a development that made national headlines at the time.
In 2008, the couple had a daughter named Nivrithi. However, following a falling out, Sreeja filed a harassment case against her husband and in-laws in 2011, and their divorce was finalised in 2014. Sirish Bharadwaj passed away due to an illness in June 2024.
After her first marriage ended, Sreeja married businessman Kalyaan Dhev in a second wedding on March 28, 2016, in the presence of Chiranjeevi’s family. The couple welcomed a daughter, Navishka, in 2018.
Shortly thereafter, reports surfaced that the two were living separately. The matter returned to the spotlight in 2023 when Kalyaan Dhev mentioned on social media that his time with his daughter had become limited.
As of November 2026, there is no official information confirming that their divorce has been finalised.
The marriage of Niharika, daughter of Chiranjeevi’s brother Nagababu, also ended in divorce.
She married Guntur-based Chaitanya Jonnalagadda in Udaipur, Rajasthan, on December 9, 2020, in a grand ceremony attended by Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun, and other family members.
However, the marriage ended within three years. On July 5, 2023, Niharika announced that the couple were parting ways by mutual consent. Neither of them publicly disclosed the reasons for the divorce, though Niharika later described the development as a painful experience on a podcast in 2024.
In June 2025, Nagababu stated that they had made a wrong decision. He noted that when the couple showed no interest in living together, the family accepted their decision. He added that he had no objection to Niharika remarrying in the future.
Having started her career as an actress, Niharika later ventured into film production, earning recognition for producing the film Committee Kurrollu. She is currently involved in both acting and production.
The marital life of Chiranjeevi’s sister Vijaya Durga, the mother of actors Sai Durgha Tej and Vaisshnav Tej, had also seen discord.
She was first married to Siva Prasad, with whom she had two sons, before differences led to a divorce.
In a 2019 interview, Sai Durgha Tej revealed that his parents got divorced when he was in the 10th grade, adding that his mother took full responsibility for bringing up both their sons.
After her first marriage ended, Vijaya Durga remarried a doctor in 2011, a decision Sai Durgha Tej said he and his brother supported. In 2024, Sai Durgha Tej incorporated his mother’s name into his own and launched a production house named after Vijaya Durga.
(Edited by R Rajesh Kumar.)
