Shark Tank India’s Vineeta Singh Speaks-Up On Trolls Targetting Her For Looks

Vineeta Singh, a 38-year-old entrepreneur, is well known for leading the charge for female empowerment in India’s entrepreneurial landscape.

Recently, she has become a household name and gained celebrity-like status because of her appearance as a “shark” in the first season of the reality series Shark Tank India, a business-themed reality show in which budding investors come and pitch their start-ups for getting investment from judges or Sharks.

The CEO and co-founder of the well-known Sugar Cosmetics Corp. have drawn attention due to her enthusiasm for her work and her open candour in interviews, in which she discusses her personal experiences and challenges.

When she recently opened up about the online harassment she encounters, she gained a lot of attention and since then everyone is talking about her and about what she said. She admitted in a conversation with author Chetan Bhagat that she never imagined she would be able to shut out criticism, but she is proud of herself for being able to do so.

Vineeta Singh used the “post-and-run” strategy on social media to dodge comments on her appearance

She said that these days, she uses a “post-and-run” strategy on social media, meaning that she doesn’t stay to check comments after posting images to Instagram. Although she is a successful businesswoman, she said that the majority of the comments on her postings are about her appearance.

Vineeta said,

“Unfortunately, this is a thing. Your appearance, as a woman, is given so much importance. Even on Instagram, I’ve achieved so much in life, but when I post something, 95% of the comments are about the way you look. It’s one of those things. It’s a by-product of being a girl.”

She added,

“Now that I’m the CEO of a company, I feel that even now, people are only commenting things like, ‘You don’t look good enough’, or ‘You started a makeup company because you look so bad’.”

She went on to add,

“Whatever you do, people will find a way to bring you down. I’ve worked really hard to get to where I am, I’ve struggled, I’ve suffered, and irrespective of what industry it is, it’s something that is well-deserved. But now also, the way you look is very important, especially for a woman. Men can get away with thoda sa…”

Vineeta revealed people called her a hypocrite

Vineeta claimed that because she founded a beauty business and promotes “self-love,” she is frequently referred to as a “hypocrite.”

She acknowledged having discussions with her friends about this and was pleased to respond to Chetan Bhagat’s inquiry on how she manages the tension between promoting self-love and promoting cosmetics.

According to her, women wear cosmetics mostly for their own satisfaction and never to appease other people. Everyone else shouldn’t have an issue with it if it makes them happy.

Returning to the assaults she experiences online, she continued,

“Nobody said Steve Jobs same T-shirt kyu pehenta hai, and they never questioned that, right? It was fine for Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs to wear the same T-shirt… It was cool, actually. But in India, people give too much importance to this.”

 

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On Shark Tank India, Vineeta Singh appeared with other successful entreprenuers like Peyush Bansal, Ghazal Alagh, Anupam Mittal, Aman Gupta, Ashneer Grover, and Namita Thapar. The sitcom is currently in the works for a second season, and we can expect Vineeta Singh to return as a shark.

Watch the complete video of Chetan Bhagat’s Deeptalk with Vineeta Singh below