Ashneer Grover said that he ‘coincidentally became famous’ because of Shark Tank India, and admitted that all the judges who appeared on the reality show accepted the job because they wanted some level of popularity.
Ashneer delivered a lecture at Lovely Professional University recently, and spoke about his experience on the show, and recalled some stories about his career as an entrepreneur. The BharatPe co-founder revealed that nobody made any money on the show, and had all committed to a number that they would all invest prior to signing on.
“None of us went with the intention of making money,” he said. “Let me tell you the truth, none of us made any money from the show. Some people said that we made Rs 10 lakh per episode, but I’d have been happy with even Rs 5 lakh. The concept of the show is very simple; they believe we have money, and they felt that we all have high-value startups, we’d be able to invest some money on the show. So, they asked us to commit to spending Rs 10 crore each on the show. We said okay. We weren’t paid anything for any episode; In fact, we worked like bonded labor for hours and hours.”
About his co-judges on the show, Ashneer said in Hindi, “I knew Anupam from before. I’d pitched him an idea once, and in the month that he took to get back to me, I accepted somebody else’s investment, so I ended up saying no to him. Vineeta was my junior in IIM; we never spoke but had exchanged flirtatious glances. She was one of those ‘hot juniors’. Aman is a great guy, our ‘auditions’ for the show were held together at my place. Peyush everybody knew from Lenskart, and Namita I met for the first time on the show.”
In addition to seeking fame, Ashneer said that the reason they agreed to doing the show was because they felt that this would be a great way to spend weekends, and thirdly, they believed that it might shine a light on startup culture in the country.
Shark Tank India became a runaway hit after premiering on Sony Entertainment Television last year. A second season has been announced.
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