On an average day, finance lawyer Radhika Gupta ’18 closes deals in the office. But recently she traded spreadsheets for roses, appearing as a contestant on the 29th season of The Bachelor.
Despite being eliminated during week one of the show, she found love in new friendships while filming, describing how “there were 25 of us, so making 24 new friends amongst the girls was amazing.”
“At this age, it’s hard to find friends, because you’re kind of ingrained in work and you’re not in school anymore — you’re not joining anything new,” Gupta said. “Meeting so many accomplished, beautiful, very smart and great personality women [through the show] was just amazing.”
Gupta said she is still looking for romance. She’s currently completing a challenge to find love by going on 50 dates and sharing her journey as an influencer on Instagram.
Reality television was not originally in Gupta’s life plan, she said. However, after repeatedly watching videos of The Bachelor on TikTok, her best friend encouraged her to apply for a spot on the show.
“I had really just applied thinking that nothing would come from it,” Gupta said. “So now I’m always like, you should apply to everything cause you never know [what will happen,] and you should just always shoot your shot.”
As a woman of color, Gupta said she was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the cast. Since 2010, only 20 percent of contestants on The Bachelor have been people of color, but this number hit 63 percent for Season 25.
“I wasn’t expecting [the level of diversity], because you don’t know who else is on the show when you get there,” Gupta said. “Seeing so many other women of color really felt amazing and because of that, [I] was a little bit more comfortable than I think otherwise I might have felt.”
Gupta said her time on The Bachelor bridged her professional world with her passion for sharing insights on being an influencer.
“When our casting came out, there were just a lot of girls that were excited about it,” Gupta said. “I got so many DMs from younger Indian girls just being like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so excited to see some representation,’ ‘I’m so excited to see someone that looks like me’ [and] ‘I wanna be like you, how did you do this?’”
To Gupta, the true impact of her experience on The Bachelor is her ability to represent Indian women in such a visible way.
“I think maybe because I was there [for such a short time,] it doesn’t feel real to me when people DM me, because … I’m just a random person,” Gupta said. “I think it’s just really special that I’ve been able to connect with so many people in so many different ways.”
While Gupta said that reality dating TV shows are sometimes “paint[ed] as a catty thing” on the internet, she found her experience to be completely different. She noted that this experience gave her a platform to connect with like-minded women and form a new sisterhood with her co-stars.
As a student in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Gupta often spent time in the Regent Lounge located inside the Statler Hotel, enjoying the truffle fries. As for her relationship search at Cornell, Gupta recalled meeting people through her major and classes and dating apps.
“I remember I went on a date with a Ph.D. student [I met] on [a dating app], and I just remember it being like ‘He’s like way too mature for me,’ because he was [in his] later twenties, and I think I wasn’t even 21 yet so [I thought it was] too strange,” Gupta said. “When [dating apps] first started, people weren’t actually going on dates. It was just like, okay, let me swipe and like validate myself.”
Through trials and tribulations, Gupta eventually transitioned from apps to a reality TV competition to creating her own social media content about her romantic journey. During this change, Gupta found managing her social media content related to the show to be a refreshing break from her job.
“I was able to take a break from my job, so that was a little bit easier, and then I got back into my job because there’s a period between when the show was shot and when it’s put on TV and when the promotions are done,” Gupta said. “It’s been pretty crazy trying to balance both of my lives.”
