"Yeh Hai Mohabbatein" actors Vivek Dahiya and Divyanka Tripathi's "secret" engagement held on 15 January left not only fans but also the former's parents in shock.
Talking to BollywoodLife about their hush-hush ring ceremony, Dahiya said his parents thought he was joking when he first told them about Tripathi.
"When I first told them about her, they felt I was joking. They did not believe me. Mom and dad knew her as a TV personality that was it. My parents said: 'If you guys feel you are compatible with each other, we have no issues'. They just want us to be happy. When they met her, they were really happy," said Dahiya.
Elaborating on how they got together, the actor said it was a friend who got them together, after which they began exploring each other's interests. Calling their relationship "arranged love", Dahiya revealed why they had kept their engagement under the wraps. The couple apparently was called names and had to deal with a lot of bad blood when stories of them dating surfaced online. To avoid negativity, they decided to keep things as low key as possible.
"Some doubted our intentions. Most of them were not genuine fans but random people. We were growing fond of each other and did not want this negativity to make a dent in our relationship. This is why it was kept under wraps. I hope fans who are reading this understand our point of view," the web portal quoted him as saying.
The actor ended the chat by saying he was more romantic than his finacee. However, he quickly added that whenever he looks deep into Tripathi's eyes, he sees her heart and her love for him.
