Peyush Bansal says he requested Sony not to air his goof-up on Shark Tank, was told ‘yeh toh pakka dikhayenge’

Lenskart co-founder and CEO Peyush Bansal recalled his embarrassing goof-up on Shark Tank India, wherein he told a contestant, “Welcome to Lenskart,” instead of saying the name of the show. He said that he requested the channel, Sony Entertainment Television, to not air his gaffe but they decided to retain it.

Talking to Rohan Joshi and Tanmay Bhat on the former’s podcast, Peyush said, “I was in that zone. I didn’t even realise. Baaki sab hasne lag gaye (When everyone else started laughing), then I realised that I said ‘Welcome to Lenskart’.”

Peyush said that he is used to saying that in Zoom meetings and made a mistake on Shark Tank India. “Do saal Zoom pe hi nikaala hai. Koi aata hai toh sabse pehle bolte hai, ‘Welcome to Lenskart’, toh woh mooh se nikal gaya. Phir main Sony ko bola, ‘Yaar, isko mat dikhana, mere se galti ho gayi’. Kehte hai, ‘Yeh toh pakka dikhayenge’ (We spent two years doing meetings on Zoom. Whenever someone joins, I say ‘Welcome to Lenskart’, so it slipped out. I asked Sony not to broadcast my mistake but they said, ‘We will definitely show this’).”

Shark Tank India featured budding entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to a panel of successful tycoons, seeking their guidance and investment in exchange for equity. The other ‘sharks’ were Ashneer Grover (BharatPe co-founder and managing director Ashneer Grover), Namita Thapar (Emcure Pharmaceuticals executive director), Anupam Mittal (Shaadi.com founder and CEO), Vineeta Singh (SUGAR cosmetics co-founder and CEO), Aman Gupta (boAt co-founder and CMO) and Ghazal Alagh (MamaEarth co-founder).

Also see | Shark Tank’s Peyush Bansal gets ‘pareshaan’ as Kapil Sharma says his net worth is ₹37500 crore: ‘Thodi kam bata di’

During the first season finale of Shark Tank India, Peyush recreated the pitch for Lenskart he made to investors in 2010. As he asked for ₹1 crore in exchange for 1% equity in his company, Vineeta joked, “75% apne business ka doge (Will you give 75% equity)?”, leaving everyone in splits.