The "Baahubali" fever has caught on with almost everyone, and the latest to jump on the bandwagon is "Yeh Hai Mohabbatein" actress Divyanka Tripathi's ex-boyfriend Ssharad Malhotra.

According to reports, the actor had finished filming a scene for "Bharat Ka Veer Putra- Maharana Pratap" wherein he had to go shirtless. The unit members made him pose with a 30 Kilo Shivling on his shoulder like the way Prabhas did on the "Baahubali" poster.

"I had to go topless for the sequence and had pumped iron for two weeks. I have been a staunch Shiv bhakt and fondly call him Baba," Malhotra told The Times of India.

This will surely get him some headlines, but his personal life is what has been gathering steam, lately. After ex-flame Divyanka spoke at length about how the split has helped her be a stronger person, Ssharad said he likes to keep some stories private.

"I do not believe in washing dirty linen in public. If you have a problem with someone, you sit with them and talk. I had to maintain the other person's respect," Hindustan Times (Delhi, 30 July) quoted him as saying.

Their breakup didn't get nasty in public but both weren't spared the horrors of link-up rumours. It was widely reported that the two parted ways because Ssharad cheated on his girl with co-star Rachna Parulkar, and now reports suggest Divyanka has been seeing a Chinese restaurateur. However, both have denied being romantically involved with the mentioned names.

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