Back in mid-2018, rumours were rife that actress Esha Gupta was dating cricketer Hardik Pandya. Although both eventually went their separate ways, speculation about a brief romance has lingered. Now, in a candid conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Esha has finally addressed whether the two were ever in a relationship.
She admitted, “Yeah, for some time we were talking. I don’t think we were dating, but yeah, we were talking for a couple of months. We were at that ‘maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t’ stage It ended before we even reached the dating stage. So it wasn’t dating-dating. We met once or twice, that’s it. So yeah, as I said, it was a couple of months and then it ended.”
When asked whether they had the potential to be a couple, Esha Gupta replied, “Maybe it could have happened. But I don’t think it was meant to be. Even before that, those poor guys were already facing bad luck after saying some things on live TV. And by then, we had already stopped talking.”
Esha also spoke about the infamous Koffee With Karan episode in which Hardik Pandya appeared alongside cricketer KL Rahul. She said she wasn’t bothered by the controversy. “By then, I had become thick-skinned. When Karan Johar’s episode aired, it didn’t affect me. And those poor guys were already going through so much, what good would it have done if I had made a big deal out of it?”
When asked how things ended between them, Esha Gupta explained, “By the time that episode came out, it had already phased out. We just realised that we are not the same, not compatible enough. And everyone has a type. More than the limelight, I like family and real life. Of course I love my work — without the camera, there would be no Esha Gupta. But at the end of the day, I like going home and asking my mom what’s going on, getting scolded by her. I like all that. I can’t deal with waking up every morning and thinking ‘Oh my God,’ and my husband and I praising ourselves for how good-looking we are — I can’t handle that.”
‘Even Hardik Pandya realised I wasn’t his type’
Hardik Pandya and Natasa Stankovic confirmed their separation in July 2024.
Esha clarified she didn’t mean Hardik Pandya was like that personally, but was referring to a general tendency in the film industry. “Nothing against Hardik Pandya, as I said, it was just the talking stage. You know how there are stages? We never even got to the proper meeting stage. I don’t think we were compatible, so things never progressed. It’s not that there was something lacking in him or me — we were just very different. And in a month or two, even he realised I wasn’t his type, and I realised he wasn’t mine.”
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Buzz in 2018 suggested that Esha Gupta and Hardik Pandya met at a party and instantly hit it off. However, after the Koffee With Karan episode went viral, Esha had publicly condemned the misogynistic remarks Hardik made on the show.
