One of the ‘sharks’ on Shark Tank India, Anupam Mittal, the founder of Shaadi.com, opened up about his experience on the show and his equation with his fellow sharks. While Shark Tank India had a range of meme-worthy moments, there was also considerable banter between the sharks.
Mittal revealed that there was some ‘friction’ between the sharks during the show. He also talked about co-shark Ashneer Grover (co-founder of BharatPe) and said that his statements would sometimes be hurtful but things would be resolved the next day.
In a conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Anupam Mittal said, “I think Ashneer jo hai, apni dil ki baat ekdam samne bol dete hai. Woh ek do baar aise batein bol gaya ki thes pahuchi. (Ashneer is very straightforward and always speaks his mind. Sometimes he said things that hurt me.)”
He added, “Kya batein huyi, kaise thes pahuchi, woh chhoro. Lekin usme koi badi baat nahi hai. Samne se woh agle din aaye khud hi. Baithe, hum saath mein lunch kiye. Baat khatam. (Forget about what he said or why it hurt me. It’s not a big deal. He would come to me the next day, we’d have lunch and that’s that.)”
Talking about some conversations on the show affecting him, Mittal said, “I think 2-3 baar ho chuka hai. Woh toh hoga hi, itne mahine aap kaam karoge saath mein. Jo interpersonal interactions hote hai, thoda friction toh aata hi hai. (I think it has happened 2-3 times. But if you work together for so many months, it’s inevitable. There is going to be some friction in the interactions.)
Mittal also had some tense moments with Aman Gupta (Co-founder at boAt). “Phir ek do baar Aman ke saath ho gaya ki unko laga ki main unko kaat raha hun. Maine kaha ‘achha hua ki tumne bata diya, mujhe lag raha tha tum mereko kaat rahe ho’ (Once or twice Aman felt that I was interrupting him. I said, ‘I’m glad you told me. I thought you were interrupting me’),” Mittal said.
Mittal recalled, “Usne kaha ‘aap mere se naraaz ho? Maine kaha nahi toh tum mere se naraz ho. Toh hum gale mil liye. Khatam ho gayi baat. Saath mein khana khaye, drink piye, baat khatam. (He asked me, ‘Are you mad at me?’ I told him I thought he was upset at me. The matter ended there. We ate together, had some drinks.)”
Mittal also revealed that he had a few altercations with the co-founder of Mamaearth, Ghazal Alagh, but those issues were also resolved soon.
Shark Tank India is the India version of the show. Shark Tank gives entrepreneurs a platform to pitch their business or products to a panel of investors. The other sharks who appeared on Shark Tank India are Vineeta Singh (CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics), Namita Thapar (Executive Director, Emcure Pharmaceuticals), and Peyush Bansal (CEO, Lenskart).