Lara Dutta found Mahesh Bhupathi ‘unprofessional’ for proposing drinks in the first meeting: How they fell in love later

Mahesh Bhupathi had his eyes on Lara Dutta ever since he saw her at an event in 2000 where she was celebrating her Miss Universe win along with Priyanka Chopra. But he never got an opportunity to talk to her before 2009 when his office contacted her.

 

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How Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi met

Lara Dutta shared with Karan Johar that her first meeting with Mahesh Bhupathi was for professional reasons. She said, “We met as professionals and I didn’t know much about Mahesh. I am not a big tennis fan. I met him as Globosport (Mahesh’s company) head and a client he was handling.” The first text Dutta got from Bhupathi was, “Hey Lara, this is Mahesh Bhupathi. Would love to meet up. Let me know whenever you would want to meet up for a drink.” On this Dutta doubted his professionalism and told him she doesn’t drink and would rather meet for coffee. They met for coffee and from then, started meeting in between his tournaments. “We would meet up and discuss projects or endorsement deals and that was it,” Dutta shared.

 

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Talking about the agenda that he had on his mind before meeting Dutta, Bhupathi said, “There was only one agenda, two days back I read in the newspaper that she is single.”

The two celebrities became closer in London when she was there for the shoot of her 2010 movie Housefull. Bhupathi spent three weeks in London before leaving for his US tour. “He ended up spending three weeks in London. I went out and celebrated his birthday with his friends and his family. I was the only one who was invited, so that should have rung some alarm bells in my head. But by then I thought he was rather cute and I had heard he was sort of available and I was single, so we sort of took a chance,” Dutta narrated.

After reports of Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi dating each other came out, some speculated her to be the reason behind his divorce from his then-wife Shvetha. But Dutta clarified that she “didn’t know Mahesh all through his marriage”. She said, “I was nowhere on the scene when the split happened. When I met him, I knew he was legally not divorced but there was no baggage that he brought with it.”

 

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Mahesh Bhupathi proposed Lara Dutta at 2 am

Lara Dutta got proposed for marriage by Bhupathi twice as the first time, he didn’t carry a ring with him because he was unsure about the actor’s response. “We were at two separate political dos and at some point in time we decided that we would meet up in the evening. It was almost 2 am and we were watching a little bit of television before falling asleep. Mahesh turned around and asked, ‘Are you going to marry me?’ I looked at him and said, ‘Yeah, eventually, I guess.’ He said, ‘No, I am not asking you hypothetically, I am asking you.’ I was like where is my ring, where is the bended knee, what is this? He said, ‘I didn’t want to get a ring in case you were to say no,'” Dutta narrated.

However, Bhupathi made up for a boring proposal. He proposed to his ladylove in New York. Dutta shared, “He proposed while we were in New York at the US Open. It was really sweet. Mahesh is not about drama and overtures of love. I was taken out to an Italian restaurant and we were engaged in New York.”

 

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Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi got married on February 16, 2011. They have a daughter, Saira.