After the two successful seasons of Shark Tank India, the audience is currently experiencing its third season. Season 3 is streaming on Sony LIV and Sony Entertainment Television starting January 22, 2024. It showcases the entrepreneurs making their business presentations to a panel of sharks to seek investment. Each episode witnessed plenty of investment made by investors in the new business ideas. Amidst this question arises whether Shark Tank India is a scripted show.
The show features a panel of potential investors, termed Sharks. The ongoing season features the addition of six distinguished Sharks to the panel, including Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato; Azhar Iqubal, co-founder & CEO of Inshorts; and Ritesh Agarwal, founder & CEO of OYO Rooms, along with Radhika Gupta, MD & CEO of Edelweiss; Varun Dua, founder of ACKO; and Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder and chairperson of UpGrad.
Anupam Mittal opens up Shark Tank India deals
Shark Tank India faces a lot of controversies, from funding allegations to the assertion that the show is scripted. As per the data of July 2023 from PirvateCircle Research, around 40 percent of the deals from season 1 had been closed one year after the show aired. However, It is important to remember that several judges have expressed disagreement with the data.
Meanwhile, Anupam Mittal clarified the deal concept through his LinkedIn account. He wrote, “First it was ‘Sharks do not invest their own money’, then ‘Oh, the show is scripted’ & then ‘Sharks only fund profitable cos’.”
He further describes the execution process, writing, “Most of the businesses on the Tank are very early stage. Many are proprietorships, which first need to be registered as Companies. The founders have never seen an SHA, nor do they have readily available numbers. Our teams hand-hold them through many of these issues. Apropos, most deals close in 3-6 months, depending on the readiness of the Company and the founders.”
“Sometimes deals don’t go through because the founder changes their mind, the company fails legal, financial, and/or tax diligence OR the founders do not meet the obligations agreed to while accepting a ‘conditional deal’. For better or for worse, this is just the nature of deal-making,” he concluded.
Apart from this, the Shark Tank India panel also includes 6 existing Sharks: Aman Gupta, Amit Jain, Anupam Mittal, Namita Thapar, Vineeta Singh, and Peyush Bansal. Among them, Ritesh Agarwal, CEO and founder of OYO Rooms, was ranked the richest shark in the ongoing season. Meanwhile, Rahul Dua continues hosting the show.
