Ashneer Grover Recalls Not Being Able To Afford Salman Khan’s Rs 7.5 Crore Fee For An Endorsement Deal

Shark Tank India fame Ashneer Grover recently opened up about striking an endorsement deal with Salman Khan, and managed to do it even though he could not afford the actor's fee. Ashneer, who co-founded BharatPe, shared that he had approached Salman to be the brand ambassador and was initially told that he can't afford the actor.

Grover revealed that he was trying to run his company with just around ₹100 crore in his bank account, and he thought of having the Bollywood superstar as its brand ambassador in order to build trust among his investors and clients.

Ashneer, who recounted the incident while addressing the students at Lovely Professional University in April, 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.

He went on to add, “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."

Ashneer Grover became a household name after he appeared as one of the seven sharks (judges and investors) on Shark Tank India alongside Peyush Bansal, Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh, Namita Thapar, Aman Gupta, and Ghazal Alagh. It must be noted that he recently resigned from his post as managing director of BharatPe over allegations of misappropriations of funds. He and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover were later removed from the company's board as well.