Who is Nupur Mehta?

She was virtually unknown till two days back. But by Monday evening, Nupur Mehta’s face was splashed across news channels and she even trended on Twitter for a few hours. A model-turned-starlet, the 31-year-old finally got her 15 minutes of notoriety, although as part of a match-fixing controversy. The Sunday Times, of UK, had printed a story on Bollywood starlets being used as honey traps to lure cricketers into fixing matches.

The paper printed Mehta’s picture with the story but did not name her. Her face, blurred in the photograph, is now being termed by her as a “likeness”. Following the news, the Delhi-based Mehta, currently in Mumbai for a holiday, was besieged with curious calls about the scandal. The press conference she held outside a coffee shop in Lokhandwala on Monday to deny the allegations, is unlikely to rip off her notoriety so soon.

Mehta says she was raised in a well-to-do Delhi family. “Both my parents are surgeons,” she asserts quickly, rolling out her resume which includes studying at Delhi Public School, RK Puram, and graduating in English Literature. She clearly had stars in her eyes as she tells us she shifted to Milan, Italy, after winning the Miss Delhi title at the age of 17. She claims she spent six years modelling in Europe during which she walked the ramp for various designers. “I moved back to India in 2003 to participate in the Miss India competition, and eventually shifted base to Mumbai because I wanted to become an actor,” she adds.

A short course in acting and a few commercials later, Mehta made her debut in the children’s film, Abracadabra, in 2004. Based on the Harry Potter story and backed by Prabhu Deva, with Anupam Kher and Satish Kaushik, in the cast, the film, however, bombed. “But, I got my big break in Rahul Rawail’s Jo Bole So Nihaal, a very controversial film which was banned in Punjab,” she adds.

Her acting career never took off, though Mehta managed a few more advertising campaigns since, including for Fanta, Piaggio and Fiat. In 2007, however, she gave up the uncertainties of the film industry and moved back to her hometown, Delhi.

After a couple of corporate jobs, she says she now freelances with Fulcrum Events, an event management company. Mehta insists that her social circle doesn’t include celebrities. “I don’t know any cricketers, that is just not my circle,” she adds.