Shark Tank India: Fans call Deepinder Goyal 'soft Ashneer Grover' as he grills pitchers. Watch

Shark Tank India: New judge Deepinder Goyal and former judge Ashneer Grover

As the third season of business reality show Shark Tank India began streaming from Monday, fans have begun to draw parallels between former judge Ashneer Grover and one of the new judges this season -- Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal. Some even took to social media to christen him "soft Ashneer Grover" and "Ashneer Grover lite".

A clip from the show which has Goyal critiquing the work of one of the pitchers is also viral. In it, he is seen commenting on the attention to detail that the budding team of entrepreneurs from WTF fitness seemed to lack especially while presenting their business idea to the investors or "Sharks".

"Why does the phone number you have mentioned have nine digits instead of ten?" asked the Zomato CEO before pointing out grammatical mistakes in the presentation.

Ashneer Grover mild version. Waise whatever he said is right and I agree but bolne ka tarika thoda casual hai https://t.co/GzXaFfURKt

— Stanley (@stanip7) January 24, 2024

Deepinder Goyal went on to add that when prospective employers judge candidates based on their resumes, even a small grammatical mistake is enough for them to reject them, so the Shark Tank India pitchers should have paid more attention to the details, especially when they knew that they would be presenting to prospective investors on national television.

His remarks seemed to have resonated with several fans. "Just watched Shark Tank India season 3 and saw Deepinder Goyal first time in the tank. His insights were spot-on, and every word resonated. The attention to detail in feedback was impressive! Can't wait for more episodes. Huge fan!" wrote X user Tushar Nikam (@champ_96k). "He is new soft of Ashneer Grover."

"Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal is a great addition to the Shark Tank. Could be the next Ashneer Grover," wrote Omkar Dutta (@OmkarDutta). Another X user Aditya Gupta (@AdityaG4pta) added, "The way he pointed out the small faults in that 'WTF fitness' was amazing, he is a soft Ashneer Grover."

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.

Read more: Radhika Gupta on being a Shark Tank India judge: 'Despite spending some money, I feel richer'