Ashneer Grover recalls he couldn’t afford Salman Khan for an ad and was told, ‘Aap bhindi kharidne aye ho kya’

Shark Tank India’s Ashneer Grover had once tried to strike an endorsement deal with Salman Khan, and managed to do it even though he could not afford the actor’s fee. Ashneer, co-founder and former managing director of Indian fintech company BharatPe, recalled that he had approached Salman to be the brand ambassador. However, he was initially told that he can’t afford the actor. Also Read| Ashneer Grover bumps into Malaika Arora, Arjun Kapoor in Paris

Ashneer Grover recounted the incident while addressing the students at Lovely Professional University. He said that as he was trying to run his company with around ₹100 crore in his bank account, and he thought of having Salman as its brand ambassador to build trust among his investors and clients.

He said, “I decided to get Salman Khan as brand ambassador in 2019. Nobody could even think about it at that point. 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 ₹7.5 crores, which is when I started calculating as I had ₹100 crore on me. I will give him ₹7.5 crore, spend another ₹1-2 on making the advertisement, and then I have to pay broadcasters as well. It’s going to be a ₹20 crore expense and I have only ₹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 ₹4.5 crore.”

Recalling one anecdote from his meetings with Salman’s team, Ashneer said, “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 (At one point his manager asked me, ‘Sir have you come to buy vegetables? How much will you negotiate?’ To which I said, ‘I simply don’t have the money, can’t pay)’.”

Ashneer appeared as one of the seven sharks (judges and investors) on Shark Tank India along with Peyush Bansal, Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh, Namita Thapar, Aman Gupta, and Ghazal Alagh. He resigned from his post as managing director of BharatPe in March after allegations of misappropriations of funds. Him and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover were later removed from the company’s board, as well.