Shark Tank India returned to the screens with its second season on January 2 and after the first episode, the "Sharks" -- as the judges on the business reality show are called -- have been facing criticism after they rejected the pitch of two entrepreneurs because they represented a company that could rival one of their own businesses.
Shark Vineeta Singh is the CEO of Sugar cosmetics and the two entrepreneurs whose pitch was rejected represented another cosmetics brand called Recode. Except Lenskart CEO Peyush Bansal, all the other judges refused to invest in the company because they did not want to support "friend's rival business". The move left a number of fans of the show disappointed, with several calling it unethical and unfair of the judges. Many also questioned the way Recode presenters were treated on Shark Tank India.
Meanwhile, Emcure Pharmaceuticals executive director Namita Thapar on Tuesday hit out at the critics stating that the judges are entitled to their independent values.
"Being a shark doesn’t mean we are not entitled to our independent values and speaking candidly so if I don’t invest in a fellow sharks competition, that’s me, no regrets," she tweeted.
Other Sharks -- Lenskart founder Peyush Bansal, bOAT founder Aman Gupta, SUGAR Cosmetics founder Vineeta Singh, People Group and Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, and CarDekho co-founder Amit Jain -- are yet to comment on the criticism.
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