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.