Actress Amala Paul started her acting career at 17. Ever since, she has proved her mettle in Tamil and Malayalam films. Nearly 12 years into the profession, as she gears up for the release of her Telugu web series 'Kudi Yedamaithe', she reflects back on her journey and feels it is about time she separated her personal and professional lives. "I am what I am. I came into the industry when I was 17 and whatever I have gone through personally reflected in my work and vice versa. I cannot take one out of the other or maybe I didn't know the art of separating the two. I can say that about myself until 2019," she tells IANS.

Amala continues: "But 2020 has been a very enlightening year for me. When I was going through my father's death in a very conscious way, it was a very introspective phase for me. I had this realisation that I felt very naked. I felt like an open book. I had this realisation that I don't have anything as my own, as my private life and everything was out there. I felt like my life has been misinterpreted beyond anything I could have done."