‘Isko discount hi de dena chahiye tha’: Ather Energy CEO Tarun Mehta makes a witty comeback on Nikhil Kamath’s ‘sh*t marketing’ tease
A day after Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, took a friendly dig at Ather Energy, a Bengaluru-based electric scooter manufacturer, Ather CEO Tarun Mehta has come up with a witty counter on X, saying that the company’s marketing team should have given him the discount.
The friendly jibe began when Nikhil Kamath humorously mentioned on Instagram and Twitter that he bought an Ather electric scooter at the full market price without any discount. He quipped about Ather’s marketing shortcomings but praised the product’s quality.
“Every one of us has pluses and minuses, Ather has sh*t marketing but great product (sorry Tarun). PS: I bought this scooter at MRP, Tarun (Mehta) didn’t even give me a discount,” Kamath shared in his social media post.
In response, Tarun Mehta took to X, sharing a popular meme featuring Pakistani cricket fan Sarim Akhtar, humorously suggesting what the marketing team might be thinking now. “Marketing team be like ‘isko discount hi de dena chahiye tha (we should’ve given him a discount)’,” Mehta said, responding to Kamath’s post on X.
Kamath recently expanded his portfolio by acquiring a significant stake in Ather Energy from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, as reported by the Economic Times in April.
Kamath, aged 37, has seen his net worth soar from $1.1 billion in 2023 to $3.1 billion in 2024, according to the Forbes Billionaires List. He has been vocal about promoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative, advocating for Indians to support local brands over foreign ones across various sectors.
“Enough of the foreign franchise is ‘better’, clothes, jewelry, food, auto, content, shoes, and just about everything else,” Kamath emphasized in a recent social media post, echoing his support for indigenous products and industries.
