After a damning run-in with environmental activist Greta Thunberg, disgraced influencer Andrew Tate has received another pushback — this time from actor Karishma Sharma. Responding to a photo of hers with Tate and a video circulating on social media where he is seen talking about his “hook up incident” with the Ujda Chaman (2019) actor — Sharma has squarely slammed Tate’s claims.

“He is lying. We never hooked up. He is a scumbag spreading lies and just wants attention. I was really happy when he was arrested,” says Sharma about Tate, who is currently being detained by the Romanian police on charges of rape and human trafficking.

The 29-year-old recalls meeting Tate and his brother Tristan in 2014. “I happened to meet him at a party (in Mumbai). We got along, had a normal conversation. He told me he has an Indian mother,” Sharma shares, before revealing that once Tate learned that she was an actor, he insisted on taking a picture, the same one that has gone viral. “His texts on Instagram were very weird and inappropriate, so I blocked him once I realised he was a creep and constantly dissed women,” Sharma adds.

The video in contention got tongues wagging, giving Sharma anxiety. “It’s not a thing of shame if you ever hooked up with someone. I’d be more than okay to [admit]. After six years, out of nowhere, he posted this. It gave me a lot of anxiety as this never happened. I have so many messages just saying ‘Oh Andrew Tate’, and I have nothing to do with this guy. Even my friends questioned me. My heart just sank when my friend sent me that video,” Sharma opens up, adding that amid all this, her partner, actor Vivaan Shah has been supportive. “He said, ‘Don’t even care about him’,” she reveals.