Ranbir's rumoured Dilliwali girlfriend speaks up
Divya Kaushik (BOMBAY TIMES; May 23, 2016)

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 make-up artist, a Delhi resident, says, “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 girl who was unwittingly thrust into the limelight:

'I AM NOT DATING RANBIR KAPOOR'
“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. 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,“ says Bharti. “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 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 RANBIR'
“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. The fact is I have never met Ranbir,“ says Bharti.

'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 juicier. But it has really impacted my life. My boyfriend 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 make-up 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.“