Shark Tank India judge Ashneer Grover reveals he couldn't afford Salman Khan for an endorsement; his manager asked, 'Aap bhindi kharidne aye ho kya?'

Shark Tank India judge Ashneer Grover recently opened up about striking an endorsement deal with Salman Khan in the past when he was trying to generate trust overnight for his small business. The co-founder and former managing director of BharatPe said that he couldn't afford the Dabangg Khan to be the brand ambassador and recalled his manager asking him if he has come to buy vegetables.

While addressing the students at Lovely Professional University in April, Ashneer shared an anecdote from his meeting with Salman's team. "I was a small company, and I had to generate trust overnight for my business. So I thought I should take Salman as my brand ambassador. When I approached Salman's team, they told me that they will charge Rs 7.5 crore, which is when I started calculating as I had Rs 100 crore on me. I will give him Rs 7.5 crore, spend another Rs 1-2 crore on making the advertisement, and then I have to pay broadcasters as well. It's going to be a Rs 20 crore expense and I have only Rs 100 crore in my pocket, with no certainty if I would get another round of investment. So I asked Salman to decrease his price, and he agreed to do it for Rs 4.5 crore."

"Ek time mein toh uska (Salman Khan's) manager mere ko bolne laga ki, 'Sir aap bhindi karidne aye ho kya, matlab kitni mandwali karoge', maine bola nahi Sir hain hi nahi paise, de hi nahi sakta," he added.

After swindling fintech platform BharatPe, Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover have formed a new company called Third Unicorn Private Ltd, and are set to launch a third startup. Before co-founding BharatPe, Grover was associated with Grofers, which is now 15-minute delivery platform Blinkit that has been acquired by Zomato for Rs 4,447 crore (about $568 million) in an all-stock deal.

According to data accessed through Tofler, the Grovers have now registered a new company to begin their new journey. The nature of the startup is now known yet. Ashneer and Madhuri Jain, former Head of Controls at BharatPe, are both directors of the firm that was founded on July 6. The firm has a total paid-up capital of Rs 10 lakh and an authorised share capital of Rs 20 lakh.