Former Shark Tank India judge Ashneer Grover on Monday pointed out how the popular business reality show has been using his name to get views for their videos on YouTube. The Third Unicorn founder retweeted a post on X that showed the Shark Tank India team using #AshneerGrover to get more eyeballs for their videos.
A quick check by Moneycontrol revealed that multiple videos of the show on YouTube carried his name in the hashtags even though he wasn't on the panel. Using the hashtag increased the probability of the videos popping up on YouTube and Google whenever anyone searches for "Ashneer Grover" online. Interestingly, the videos that were mostly from the second season of the show, did not feature the names of the other sharks as hashtags.
Grover was one of the judges on the first season of Shark Tank India and has gathered immense popularity during the show. He was, however, dropped after his fallout with his former company BharatPe -- the fintech firm that he had helped launch. But, his popularity among the show's fans continued through seasons with many still calling for him to be brought back into the panel.
One of his favourite phrases in the show "Doglapan" -- which roughly translates to duplicity or fake -- also became extremely popular among his fans, prompting the entrepreneur to even write a book titled Doglapan.
Ashneer Grover also went on record to say that his growing popularity made him adopt healthy lifestyle changes and lose weight.
After being dropped from the Shark Tank India, the 41-year-old known to not mince words while stating his opinion, has taken a few sly hits at the showmakers -- once when 12 judges were announced for the third season instead of the usual six and when there were allegations of the judges not holding their end of the bargain to the entrepreneurs after promising funds.
In the second instance, Grover, suggested that the "Sharks" be asked to deposit the money they plan to invest in escrow before the shooting begins.
"Solution is simple -- ask sharks to put money in escrow before the shoot starts! Dene ke liye paisa hona bhi chahiye (First, they should have the money before promising investment to others)," he tweeted.
And commenting on double the number of judges in the current season, the former "ahark" had said, "Shark Tank 3 is ‘audition’ of sharks for Shark Tank 4! Life mein ek lesson hai -- don’t change and make unnecessary problem of something which is already solved. Wish quantity solves for quality!"
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