“OG sharks are bullies”: New judge Shaily Mehrotra confronted Anupam Mittal and team over backstage warnings before filming began

Instead of waiting to see how things would unfold, Shaily chose to confront the panel directly before the shoot began. “When I met all of them, I told them beforehand that one of you told me that you all bully newcomers and don’t let them speak. They were stunned. They were like, ‘This is bad. You think we are capable of doing that?’ I said, how would I know? I’ll only know later. But I think they understood this, and it worked for me. In every pitch, Anupam would turn towards me and say, ‘Ab aap bolo!’ So that felt nice. They were nice to me. It was super entertaining — I have laughed the most on this show. It was also super tiring. We would shoot for 12–13 hours at a stretch.”

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When asked to rate the sharks on their sharpness and intelligence, Shaily responded thoughtfully. “I will not give them points for being sharp sharks. They have been on the show for five seasons — it’s like their second home. They have heard so many pitches and invested in over 100 startups each. How do I compare myself with them? You slowly learn the trick. It’s easy to compare, but we often forget that their journey has been longer than ours.”

Earlier, in a conversation with ANI, she spoke about sharing the panel with Namita Thapar, Anupam Mittal, Aman Gupta and Kunal Bahl. “Being part of a panel with such diverse operating experience is invaluable. The discussions reinforced how much stronger investment decisions become when driven by collective insight,” she said.