Ranbir's rumoured girlfriend Bharti Malhotra: I have never met him

Forget about dating Ranbir Kapoor , Bharti Malhotra, his rumoured Dilliwali girlfriend, tells us that she is not even a fan of the actor. The model and makeup artist, a west Delhi resident, says that "after facing this bizarre situation and going through so much stress in the last week, I don't think I will ever even say that I like him for his work. He may be a good actor, but I have never even liked or followed him like a fan." Excerpts from a chat with the Delhi girl who was unwittingly thrust into the limelight.

'I am not dating Ranbir Kapoor'

Bharti, still sounding clueless about the rumours doing the rounds online about Ranbir dating her, has decided to clear the air. "I did not know how to address this before. Now it is important for me to come out and clear this confusion, to put a stop to all these reports," she says. She adds that it is not that she hasn't tried to do anything about the rumours since they first appeared online last week.

"Last week, I got a call from a friend who asked me if I was dating Ranbir Kapoor. Like any other girl with no connection to Ranbir or even Bollywood, I thought someone was playing a prank on me. Then I got to know that I was being tagged as 'Ranbir's new Delhi-based girlfriend' by a news channel," she says. "I started reading the internet reports and was shocked. Earlier, there were reports saying that Ranbir was spotted with some 'mystery girl', and then suddenly, I was suspected to be that 'mystery girl' and my Facebook pictures were used with those reports. I have no clue who started this or how this was reported without anyone trying to reach out to me. I did make a few calls to some publications to have the online reports removed. I told them that I am not dating Ranbir Kapoor, but it was of little help. Some websites removed the link, but I realised that some portals were adding more juicy, false details to the dating rumour. I did not know how to stop that. Everyone started talking about it, but I have had enough of this."

'I have never met Riddhima or Ranbir'

While reports say that Ranbir was introduced to Bharti by his sister Riddhima Kapoor Sahni at a party in Delhi, Bharti says that the truth is that she has never met either sibling. "As I said, I do not know who cooked up these stories. My friends and family know that I don't even know Riddhima, forget about meeting her at a party and her introducing me to Ranbir. People have been asking me when I met Ranbir, and I am tired of telling them that I have no means of meeting him, nor do I want to meet him. It is very awkward answering these things. Some people are saying that I must be happy to be in the limelight, but it is just stressful, with people calling me and my family, looking for more details," says Bharti.

Ranbir Kapoor's rumoured girlfriend Bharti Malhotra with her boyfriend Prateek Chaudhary">'I was in Jaipur with my boyfriend, not in Morocco with Ranbir'

Bharti says that she has been in a steady relationship with her boyfriend, Prateek Chaudhary, and was in Jaipur with him. She says, "I have been dating him for the past three years. Our families know about us, and we will be formally engaged soon. I was on a vacation in Jaipur with him and I also have pictures from there. How could I be in Morocco? All these are false details and are there just to make the rumour more juicy. But it has really impacted my life. My boyfriend Prateek has been very supportive, but our families were worried about these false reports, people talking about them and my pictures being circulated on the internet. Since I am a makeup artist and I need to connect with more people through social networking websites, my Instagram account wasn't a private one. But I had to make it private after all these reports started appearing. I even thought of deleting all my social media profiles as I was afraid that my personal pictures from there would be used. Anyone who is not in my situation will not understand that I am not entertained by these false reports of link-ups with a superstar. I am a normal girl and my personal life is being badly affected by my pictures being used and my life being discussed openly like this."