Shark Tank India: Ashneer Grover on how he became a part of the show, says he hadn’t watched original US show

To say that Shark Tank India has become a popular phenomenon in the Indian reality television scene would be an understatement. The business reality show, the first season of which ended its run this month, took television by storm with a genius concept that the country had not seen before, at least not in reality TV anyway. Ashneer Grover, who made his way into memes and people’s hearts as one of the formidable investor sharks on the show, recently opened up about how he came to be a part of the Sony show.

Grover, who is the managing director and co-founder of BharatPe, recently chatted with Raj Shamani, a YouTuber, and revealed the circumstances, which led to Sony contacting him. Sony had initially approached Venture Catalyst, a company that had invested in BharatPe. Venture Catalyst in turn provided Sony with the names of almost 300 founders who they believed could be potential judges on the show. Sony had conducted background checks on their own and knocked on Grover’s door.

The businessman admits that initially, he didn’t have a craze to be a part of the show, and had not watched the international version of it either. He had agreed to be a part of the show after learning that it would involve investing, and he had also revealed that he became more comfortable to be a part of it after having a conversation with the showrunner, Bimal Unnikrishnan. Grover also said that he was keen to learn who the other judges on the show were, as he wanted to make sure he would be sitting with the ‘right set of people’.

Shark Tank India is available to stream on SonyLIV.