Actress Esha Gupta has dismissed dating rumours with cricketer Hardik Pandya, stating that their equation never progressed beyond the ‘talking stage’.

“We were only talking for a couple of months and then it phased out. We never dated. We weren’t sure if it was meant to be. We never reached the dating stage. We realised we were not compatible. We met once or twice but that was it. We talked on the phone and then stopped,” said Esha in a conversation with television host-film critic Siddharth Kannan.

Reflecting on the brief interaction, Esha said that it happened a long time ago and she doesn’t remember the details clearly. “We met after we started talking. Our numbers were probably exchanged through a friend. I don’t remember who contacted first. Initially, we were unsure where it was going. Eventually, we realised we were not the same and it was not meant to be,” she shared.

Esha also addressed Hardik’s controversial comments on an episode of the Karan Johar-hosted chat show Koffee with Karan in 2019. “The thing had already phased out by then. We were not talking anymore. So when it happened, it did not affect me personally. I had become thick-skinned by then. Earlier such rumours or incidents used to affect me. But by then, they did not.”

“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,” the Rustom actress continued.

“It was an experience for him, not me,” quipped Esha. However, the 39-year-old actress made it clear that she has nothing against Hardik. “He is in a good place in life. I don’t want to say anything about anyone who has done no wrong to me. I don’t care what people say but he has not done anything wrong to me,” she said during the conversation.

On the work front, Esha is currently gearing up for Mehul Atha’s romantic comedy Desi Magic, co-starring Ameesha Patel, Zayed Khan and Sahil Shroff.

In 2018, rumours of Esha and Hardik dating each other had surfaced on the internet.