'Not all rags to riches stories are honest': Hansal Mehta's scathing takedown of BYJU'S

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta on Wednesday openly criticised Indian edtech firm BYJU's and said, "not all rags to riches stories are stories of honest intentions and legitimate wins".

His comment comes as the edtech major has run into problems, from lawsuits and auditing issues to layoffs and boardroom exits.

For instance, the company's auditor Deloitte, in a letter to Byju's board, said it was resigning because the company had delayed financial statements for the year ending March 31, 2022. Deloitte said it did not receive necessary documents even after writing several letters to the board, as per a report by Reuters.

Separately, three board members of BYJU's - representing investors Peak XV Partners (earlier Sequoia Capital India), Prosus and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative - stepped down, without giving a reason. BYJU's and its lenders are caught up in legal cases in the US over restructuring of a $1.2 billion loan. Not just this, the company also announced a company-wide lay off recently, which impacted close to 1,000 employees.

Amid all this, the Omerta filmmaker took to Twitter to share his own experience with BYJU's representatives who came to his house to sell programs. In his post, he complained of how the BYJU's representatives were trying to prove that his daughter was academically poor and needed the company's products.

"I’d called out BYJUS when they came to my house trying to sell programs that my daughter did not need during the pandemic. They tried to convince her that she was poor academically in order to make an extra buck. I had to drive them out of my house," Mehta tweeted.

He further added, "I was trolled for mocking the so-called rags to riches story. I had to delete my tweets because of the abuse. As their house of cards begins to collapse it’s time to remind ourselves that not all rags to riches stories are stories of honest intentions and legitimate wins."

In a separate tweet, Mehta said that the issues faced by the edtech firm were worthy of becoming an OTT series and even hinted at a title for the series- "Scam S4 - The Byju scam". He was reacting to a tweet that he had posted in October 2021 when he called Byju's "a total sham" and stated that it was a "material" for Scam season 4. Mehta is the director of the much-acclaimed web series "Scam 1992" based on Harshad Mehta scandal.

Meanwhile, Dutch-listed technology investor Prosus NV has slashed the valuation of troubled Indian edtech startup BYJU's to $5.1 billion according to its annual report, a fall of more than 75 per cent from the startup's $22 billion valuation last year.

(With agency inputs)

Also Read: 'Byju’s is not my work, it’s my life,' Byju Raveendran tells investors: Report

Also Watch: QS Rankings 2024: IIT Bombay makes it to world's top 150 universities, best in country; check latest rankings