Exclusive: Shark Tank India 3’s Namita Thapar reacts to her viral one-liners ‘Phar-Ma’, ‘Meri expertise nahi hai’; says ‘Sometimes they are planted because I am a very badmaash person on set’

Namita Thapar, who serves as the Shark on ‘Shark Tank India 3’, is famously known for her one-liners on the show and her competitive spirit. The woman business entrepreneur, in an exclusive chat with ETimes TV, spoke about her stint in the show, challenges she has faced in her entrepreneurial journey, making a conscious fashion statement and more. Excerpts.

It feels fantastic. A lot of times when my friends meet me, they think this show is just for entertainment and it’s not a serious show, where we are also in to make money. This exit gave a lot of credibility to the show, to the Sharks and to the founders. The bigger part for me is the venture. Anything that comes along with artisans and handicrafts, people think it’s NGO, CSR and one won’t make money. But the fact that he has gone from 4 to 50 stores and then became India’s biggest airport retailer, that’s just great. That is the reason I have taken a partial exit because he is going to go a long way. And he is going to become much bigger than what he is now and I would like to be a part of that. In about 2-3 weeks, I am going to collaborate on something fun with him. So wait and watch for that.

I think it is fun. People have very stressful lives. We provide a bit of humour, laughter, and entertainment. They have fun at our expense so why not. I know how to have fun with it. At times they are deliberate. I do it just for masti because I know the other sharks will smirk and the audience as well. Sometimes, a lot of the times, it’s just being yourself and it comes out. When there’s a healthcare pitch, I get very competitive. Then it comes out authentically. But sometimes it is planted, because I am a very badmaash person. I like to do masti on sets. I like to have fun and a good time.

Given the number of company portfolios we have right now, we cannot have a distraction to our core job, which fundamentally remains Emcure. So we have a really good team managing the fund and on the personal level, I have four weekends a month. So 4 times a month I get on Zoom call with all the founders. 4 hours a month I dedicate to Shark Tank. As you see on my Insta page, I connect and brainstorm with a lot of founders and investors. 4 hours a month is not too much but it helps me stay connected.

I love what I do. I think there cannot be a bigger motivation in life than loving what you do. Rajkumar Hirani’s movie ‘3 Idiots’ stays it all, right? Success ke peechhe mat bhago, do what you love. Kamyabi jhak maarke peechhe bhaagegi. I am a big believer in that. If you wake up every day saying I can’t wait to go to the office, you know I actually never had Monday blues. I don’t survive on vacations for too long. I like taking mini vacations rather than taking longer ones. I genuinely like going to work.

I love the love but sometimes, it’s an intrusion on privacy and my family doesn’t like it. So when we go for a family dinner, where we just want to bond, people come non-stop for selfies, when on a vacation, we get mobbed and our time gets disrupted like that, my kids don’t like it. It’s taken them some time to adapt to it. So now we have changed the places we vacation and how we vacation. On the personal front, I love the love so while it is hard on the family, I have quite enjoyed the love and trolling too.

All Sharks are fantastic. Other than Varun, I have known most of them. Varun is the only one I haven’t met. The others I have known before I met them in the tank. All are fabulous people. And they are all fabulous people with very diverse backgrounds. They bring great insights to season 3. So I genuinely feel from a pure content perspective, season 3 is going to be the best ever.

From day one, we get called nepo-kids and are born with a silver spoon and papa ki pari. We are second generation. But what people don’t understand is that when I joined Emcure, we were 500 crores, we are 8000 crores now. To take it to that level as a group, the second and third generations also need to have an entrepreneurial mindset.

In India, 87% of our GDP is from family-owned businesses. We are the third largest country, when it comes to just family businesses. While founders are fabulous, family businesses also have a very important place. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations also have a very important role. Sometimes, people don’t think through that. It’s just their ignorance, you just can’t help it. You have to do the best you can given the base you have been given and try your best to take it to the next level. We as a family and everyone in the company have done a fabulous job.

I think the time could have been 9 pm instead of 10 pm. I have gotten this feedback. But people, who care about it, watch it and think it is business through storytelling. You forget gyaan, you don’t forget stories. You remember the entrepreneur, you remember the product. Through that, you are learning business concepts, how cool is that?

I have been running a business entrepreneurship academy for 11-17 year olds for 7 years now. I am very hands-on with this. I have seen young minds first-hand, starting early. India’s future looks incredibly bright.

To be honest, a lot of it I did for myself. For too many years, I have dressed down. People would always say that you don’t get taken seriously as a business leader if you are flaunting your fashion. So I would tie my hair, dress down and not wear makeup. I would wear glasses and dull colours for too long. One day I thought, you know what I am going to be. I enjoy fashion, I really do. And I am going to be what I am.

In season 3, for the first time, I really stepped out of my comfort zone. Whether it’s my hairstyle, makeup or outfits, I tried everything which I otherwise wouldn’t have tried. I have a great team in terms of stylists, and hair person. Together the team really guided me and helped me. And I absolutely enjoyed the journey.