Balika Vadhu actress Neha Marda recently stepped into the entrepreneurial spotlight as she featured on Shark Tank India with her brand Phitku. In an exclusive chat with Midday, the actress opened up about her journey inside the tank, calling it both overwhelming and transformative.
“My experience in the tank was absolutely amazing. Though before I landed there, it was a roller coaster for me,” she admitted. Neha revealed that pitching a business was never something she had envisioned for herself. “It is not the kind of space that I`ve always dreamt of or I was always prepared to pitch my business in front of anybody.”
Neha Marda compares the pitch to her acting career
Drawing a comparison with her acting career, Neha Marda explained how different the experience felt. “I have auditions, I have auditioned like a zillion of times and I`m extremely comfortable with that space where I know I have a scripted line and I had to say my bit and I had to get into some skin of the character. But standing and pitching my business was never my dream and never that I have imagined myself.”
Despite being a fan of the show, she never saw herself on that stage. “I have been a follower of Shark Tank since almost the first season but it was never my dream to stand there. I`ve never imagined and never thought that I would be standing one day myself there.”
However, once the pitch began, things changed. “It didn`t feel for the first time when I was standing in front of the sharks though of course with lot of anxiety I landed there. But once it started, it never felt that I actually had to get into any skin of the character or do I have to deliver something which is not me because eventually, Phitku was me. And it flowed like a water in the river.”
On bagging the deal
Calling the preparation intense, she said, “I felt like I was getting ready for 10th or 12th boards. I never worked on my scripts as much as I had to work on real scripts. So, like a raw baby, I was preparing how to pitch myself, how to position my brand, how to talk about my story and everything behind it.”
On securing a deal, she clarified, “We had gone there for the deal and that was the only deal. We wanted the sharks to be on board.” She added, “Anupam Mittal and Aman Gupta investing on us speaks a lot about us speaks a lot about Phitku that we have done something good. That gives a validation and nothing more than that.”
Summing up her vision, Neha said, “We wanted the sharks on board and of course we wanted the best sharks on board and we got them.”
