Shark Tank India season 2: With Ashneer Grover out, the show loses its spunk and candour
Shark Tank India season 2: With Ashneer Grover out, the show loses its spunk and candour
Let’s be honest. A major reason why Shark Tank India got massively popular in the first place was due to the earthy charm and a desi way of looking at entrepreneurship that Ashneer Grover brought to the table. Not only did his one-liners sparked meme fests on Twitter and became iconic pop-culture moments, his ego-clash and fun banter with co-sharks Aman Gupta and Namita Thapar made for a good dinner-time watch. Grover brought drama, spunk and candour to a show on entrepreneurs which could have otherwise been boring and bland – given how prone Indian corporate honchos are to using jargons that the average viewer neither understands nor is interested in. Watching Ashneer on Shark Tank India, his vernacular way of talking about dhanda and street-smart entrepreneurship, made the viewers at home feel like one of them was calling the shots on the show. It allowed the viewers to dream big, unapologetically. Until it all came crashing down…
Ashneer Grover’s Fall From Grace
Grover’s popularity was at an all-time high. He was a pop-culture icon in his own right and a hot commodity. With a leaked phone call, and allegations of fraudulent transactions, it all came crashing down. What followed was a series of events worthy of a Netflix documentary – Grover was sent on leave, then terminated, his wife Madhuri posted a series of videos which showed BharatPe officials drinking. There were allegations, counter-allegations and lawsuits – all playing out in the public domain. Some BharatPe employees even accused Grover of creating a toxic work culture and forcing them to come to office during the Covid outbreak. Toxic bosses – especially those with little care about their employees’ well-being are not exactly worthy of celebrating and worshiping. Any other corporate bigwig instead of Ashneer, if faced with similar allegations, would have been cancelled real quick. Grover, however, was an exception. His Shark Tank persona was used by many fans to defend him. Therefore, it is not particularly surprising that when the teaser of season 2 of Shark Tank dropped – from which Grover was visibly absent – many of his fans had a meltdown, very publicly so.
Of course, no one really took offense or perhaps even noticed that another Shark on the panel – Mamaearth co-founder Ghazal Alagh was also not returning for the second season. For Grover, several tech bros and entrepreneurship fanatics flooded social media with ‘without Ashneer, Shark Tank won’t be the same’ messages. It was a big upset for the fans of business-reality TV.
Grover’s seat is being filled by a new Shark Amit Jain (CEO and Co-founder – CarDekho Group, InsuranceDekho.com). It doesn’t end here though.
‘Ye Sab Doglapan Hai’
Some fans started an online petition to get the motor-mouth Shark back on the show. “Band karo ye doglapan and we want Ashneer back”, read one of the comments on Instagram. For a second, I too felt like asking Sony TV – ‘bhai ye kya kar raha hai tu’ – since Grover brought drama to the show which helped TRP go through the roof. But then, being cognizant of the seriousness of the allegations levied against the disgraced businessman. I couldn’t help but laud the channel’s decision to not get Grover on board. In a day and age when we talk about toxic workplaces and call out problematic leaders, it is only fair that Grover is not included in the show – especially one that is supposed to be a guiding light for young entrepreneurs. Also, one cannot imagine what some of Grover’s ex-employees and colleagues might go through seeing him on TV knowing fully well that he can be an abusive boss.
Should Grover be cancelled and not allowed to exist or make public appearances at all? Of course not. But the entrepreneur must be held accountable for his actions and not be given a platform till the allegations against him are either proven/disproven. Freedom from cancel culture doesn’t mean freedom for consequences and Grover, of all people, must clear his name before he is back on our television and grilling young entrepreneurs.
Shark Tank India season 2 is expected to premiere in late-November/early-December this year. There might not be as many meme-worthy or pop-culture defining viral moments. Perhaps, the rest of the Sharks will not have as many blunt answers and iconic comebacks, either. But Grover’s absence is only for the best – for him, the channel and the rest of us. It will be interesting to see if the show can maintain its TRP now that they have lost their hot-headed Shark.
Till then, here are some of Ashneer’s best moments from season 1 of Shark Tank India.
Deepansh Duggal is an entertainment, pop-culture and trends writer based in New Delhi. He specializes in op-eds based on the socio-political and gender issues in the world of entertainment and showbiz. He also writes explainers and occasionally reviews shows in the OTT space. He tweets at @Deepansh75.
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