Uncertainty reigns at India's leading digital content creation company after the exodus of key members; newly-appointed president asserts 14 projects on floors, including second seasons of Panchayat, Kota Factory
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; August 12, 2020)

The Viral Fever (TVF) had a glorious run last year, with the success of Kota Factory, Tripling, Hostel Daze and the recent Panchayat (above) proving that they were the undisputed masters of quirky desi shows. However, the dream run came to an abrupt halt last week as the key players — Biswapati Sarkar, Nidhi Bisht, Amit Golani, Sameer Saxena, Dhawal Gusain, Karan Chaudhry and Saurabh Khanna — bowed out of the picture over alleged differences on the company's business approach.

So, where does TVF — the true embodiment of homegrown digital entertainment in India — stand post the exodus, without its founders to steer it ahead? The exit of Saxena, head of TVF original content, has fuelled rumours that OTT bigwigs have lost faith in the company. After all, he had helmed the sophomore season of Tripling and the much loved Yeh Meri Family, and also served as the executive producer of Panchayat, the company's biggest hit this year. Insiders say that the upcoming seasons of the stable's popular series could be in limbo without his creative guidance. mid-day reached out to Saxena, who declined to comment.

Even as uncertainty looms large in the corridors of the company, Vijay Koshy (left; above) – who returned to TVF in July after a brief stint in Arre – has been appointed president. This is the second change of gears since 2017 when Arunabh Kumar stepped down as the CEO, following a series of sexual harassment charges, paving the way for Gusain to take charge.

Despite the recent turn of events, Koshy asserts that 14 shows are set to go on floors. "Several OTT platforms are in talks with us for new shows. Some senior-level stupendous talent have moved on to pursue their own interests. But the writers and directors of Panchayat, Kota Factory (right), Permanent Roommates and Humorously Yours are still with us. The entire core team is still here. Besides Arunabh, Shreyansh Pandey [assistant vice president, content strategy & creative producer] and Akansh Gaur [content strategy head] are people who have been behind the scenes all along and will now shoulder larger responsibility. The second seasons of Panchayat, Hostel Daze and Kota Factory are in development. The same holds true for Flames season 3, Girls Hostel season 2 and Gullak season 2," he says, without refuting rumours of a brewing pandemonium within their workforce.

Quiz him on the future of the shows that were created by Saxena, and he explains, "Considering Yeh Hai Meri Family is a show based in the '90s, we are discussing whether we will take it forward. A story has yet to be locked for the third season of Tripling. When we get the right story, we will assign a director and take it ahead."

Mid-day reached out to Bisht, who declined to comment.


Sameer Saxena and Biswapati Sarkar

The actor on his journey from IIT to sketch comedies to riding the digital wave
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 5, 2020)

When Jitendra Kumar essayed a gay character in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan earlier this year, many found the actor’s choice rather bold. But the 29-year-old, who shot to fame with digital sketch comedies and series such as Pitchers, Bachelors, Kota Factory and Cheesecake, felt the film qualified as “important content”.

“I hope such stories, and the intention with which they were made, reach a larger audience,” says Kumar, who admits that his two lockdown releases, Panchayat and Chaman Bahaar, were both banking on the Ayushmann-starrer to elevate him to a household name despite his big screen debut with Gone Kesh last year. “When you’re starting out, you sometimes can’t refuse work because you have to survive. But I’ve learnt that if you focus, and are patient, you can find recognition and also get the roles that you believe in.” Considering the actor has recently become a digital sensation, keeping at it, perhaps, pays handsomely.

During the Coronavirus lockdown, Kumar, unlike many, hasn’t rekindled his culinary passion, but has been just “cooking for survival”. “I am very lazy, so I knead aata for two or three days at a go, and can make two rotis in one minute,” says the actor, who takes pride in whipping up dal tadka, egg curry, aloo shimla mirch and bhindi. Kumar credits his survival skills to his days in the NCC camps he attended in school, where he also learnt to cook on an open fire pit.

Surprisingly, Kumar’s formative years in Rajasthan’s Khairthal were singularly insular and his access to the world of entertainment was largely restricted to the small screen. “My childhood was all about cricket, cooking and studies. We usually watched Doordarshan, but during summer breaks, we would have a dish installed, and watch whatever played on the cable channels,” he says. “Back then, I never thought that I would ever become an actor or even visit Mumbai.”

A civil engineer from IIT Kharagpur, Kumar shares that he was initially drawn to acting while participating in college plays. “In IIT, we’re told to keep up with extracurriculars, so I took to the stage.” It is here that Kumar also met his college senior Biswapati Sarkar — someone who he would later collaborate with — who went from helming college plays to writing sketches for TVF, a digital content outfit, which began producing content for YouTube in the early days of web streaming in India.

Kumar remembers diving into the digital scene just after college, in 2012, spreading himself thin by straddling acting, numerous production jobs and assisting gigs. “Initially, I was unsure if this was my calling, so I gave it up in three months and took up a job with a construction company in Bangalore.” But nine months on, Kumar knew that he wasn’t cut out for civil engineering either. This is when one of his older sketches Munna Jazbaati dropped online and was received well... just enough to nudge him to face the camera again.

It helped that apart from numerous digital skits, he also bagged the show Change Aayega, Hum Laayenge (Bindaas), which was also sufficient to convince his parents of his career choice. “When they saw me on TV, they were assured of my skills,” he says. “Since my father is also a civil engineer, he understood that if I wasn’t interested in it, I wouldn’t do a good job.”

That Kumar joined the digital wave just before it became a rage also helped him get a firm foothold in the medium. “I literally saw digital content grow. And when Permanent Roommates became a hit, it changed the rules of the game and, in a way, helped establish the burgeoning industry.” The IIT-ian only featured in one episode of the show, but was convinced of its potential and reach by the overwhelming response the show garnered.

Today, Kumar feels blessed for having shared the screen with masters of the craft such as Raghubir Yadav and Gajraj Rao and feels that he’s picked up a lot from closely following their process. “When you see such actors approach a certain character through their iterations with writers and filmmakers, you learn about the different ways of internalising a character,” says the actor, who also credits acting workshops for sharpening his craft. “I am yet to develop the instinct of an actor, but that will come with time too, I hope.”

Sumeet Vyas and Nidhi Singh, lead actors of one of the highest-rated web series, trace their journey from small-town oblivion to global recognition
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 2, 2016)

Imagine a couple who were in a long distance relationship for three years, chose to skip a few face-offs and moved in together, got married and almost had a baby, all at the speed of Barry Allen racing through Star City in The Flash. Urban India will immediately picturise Mikesh and Tanya from The Viral Fever's (TVF) Permanent Roommates.

Directed by Sameer Saxena, the web series has aired successfully for two seasons with a third scheduled for 2017. Launched and created by TVF founder Arunabh Kumar, the show kicked off in 2014 and is currently the second most-watched long-form web series in the world, after Video Game High School. With 38 million views over two seasons, each episode boasting of a minimum of one million views, it is among IMDb's top 20 highest-rated shows of all time. But roomies, Sumeet Vyas, 33, and Nidhi Singh, 29, are still grounded despite all the sudden attention.

Born in Jodhpur, Sumeet moved to Mumbai when he was four years old. He dropped out of school before his 12th standard and started working at an editing studio, a job his writerfather, BM Vyas, got him. By the time he was 17, he was a pro at editing shorts, editing a few episodes for the soap Rishtey and cutting promos for music and countdown shows. "Then I saw my dad act for the first time. It was in play staged at Prithvi Theatre and I was so inspired that I decided right then that I wanted to become an actor," Sumeet reminisces.

Now, apart from being the face of the web series, he's also in Anurag Basu's series on Rabindranath Tagore, playing a leading role in Chokerbali. He's also written the mini-series Bang Baaja Baraat and done a lot of television. "I made a lot of money but playing an aadarsh beta in a saas-bahu saga made me sick. I did it to buy a house and a car but it was like working in a bank and I got fed up and quit," he reminisces, adding that he'd been a part of Nadira Babbar's theatre group, Ekjut, for six years where he met and fell in love with an aspiring actress, Shivani Tanksale, who has done special appearances in films like Shaitan, Inkaar and Happy Ending. They are married now and last month the couple was signed on to play a married couple in an ad for a leading dairy manufacturer, which has since gone viral too.

Acting is his bread and butter but he admits that for the first season of Permanent Roommates he got peanuts. "I got more money in Season 2 and when I was given a separate vanity van, I realised the perks of being a star," he laughs.

While Sumeet's fans invariably expect him to be funny and he sometimes cracks a lame joke so they are not disappointed, Nidhi's fans expect her to be serious and sober, like her on-screen avatar. "But I'm a lot like Mikesh in real life!" she acknowledges.

Born in Guwahati, she moved to Allahabad when she was two and then shifted to Mumbai when she was 16 to study BMM. At 22, she decided she'd like to be an ad-guru and went to work at a leading advertising agency. Two years into the job, she got an opportunity to freelance as an assistant director in films and simultaneously began to pursue theatre. "I was unsure about what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be till the acting bug bit me," she reveals, adding that she had to go through several rounds of auditions before she signed her first commercial.

A year later, I auditioned for a show being created by Arunabh (Kumar, TVF) for MTV and a few months later, landed a role in TVF's first original web series - Permanent Roommates. "My parents had their inhibitions about me entering the business of cinema but now they are very supportive," she says.

Sumeet confides that his parents who live in Jodhpur would wonder why youngsters wanted to click selfies with him when he isn't even a popular face on TV. "It took me a while to explain to them that I appeared on a dedicated online channel but by then the show had moved to a mobile app and that was incomprehensible to them," he laughs.

Is the sudden rise in followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat exciting or intimidating, you wonder, and Nidhi, speaking from Barcelona where she's on a break, asserts that they are enjoying the adulation. Sumeet is quick to add that he doesn't think he's all that popular. "Being fangirled in cities is fun, but it's far more exciting when people in smaller towns recognize you. That's when I know I'm doing great work," he adds.

However, a lot has changed in the last four years with the TVF office moving from a shoe-box sized room in Aram Nagar to a sprawling office in Andheri East with separate cabins for the creators. "But Arunabh and his team still work from out of one of the smaller rooms. They have no ego, no starry tantrums. The more you work with them, the more you are in sync with their thought process and realise that the more money you can make, the better the work you can do," says Sumeet, who is beginning another web series that kicks off in Manali, and is also in the Leena Yadav film, Parched, which has been the toast of the festival circuit.

So what's coming up in Season 3? "Our writer Biswapati Sarkar, best known as 'Arnub' on Frankly Speaking with Arnub, is presently writing a feature film after which he will start on the second season of the another hit TVF original web series, Pitchers. So we are still wondering where Mikesh and Tanya are going next, but wherever it is it'll be somewhere interesting for sure," he promises.

Former IITian Arunabh Kumar now hopes to create India's answer to 'The Avengers,' and will roll with the second season of his hit web series 'Pitchers' early next year
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 28, 2015)


It was during his student days at IIT Kharagpur when Arunabh Kumar, Founder-CEO of The Viral Fever (TVF) and TVF Media Labs, realised that downloading and watching TV shows was the most essential part of every engineering student's campus life.

Unfortunately, not a single one of these shows was Indian, except for a desi connection forged by Kunal Nayyar's perennially nervous nerd Raj Koothrapalli on the wildly popular The Big Bang Theory.

"I had studied the students' TV viewing habits. Thanks to unimaginative Indian soaps and their unnecessary melodrama, an entire generation of audience, between the ages of 14 and 34, had completely missed out on Indian content because of sheer lack of it," Arunabh recalls.

One day, he hopped off a Tokyo-bound flight, ditching his cushy job as a research consultant, to work in production and as directors' assistant, exploring the short film format.

"But no one seemed to understand what I wanted to convey, I was either told that my content was too intellectual for television or I was asked to change my style. I decided to take a risk with content anyway," Arunabh says.

Last year, the company's first web series, Permanent Roommates, became the most watched online series in India and the second most watched long-form web series in the world, after Video Game High School, with over 9 million views for five episodes.

The first episode from the series is now all set to be screened at the 17th MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, partnered by Mumbai Mirror, at the Movie Mela, alongside AIB's Honest Indian Weddings and Kahaani director Sujoy Ghosh's short film Ahalya.

TVF's creative director Biswapati Sarkar, who is famous for parodying Arnab Goswami on the channel's satirical show 'Barely Speaking with Arnub', which has featured Bollywood A-listers like Shah Rukh Khan and Ranveer Singh, appears as a panelist at the Movie Mela at the festival, presented by Jio, alongside Badlapur actress Radhika Apte and Google India Head, Satya Raghavan.

Meanwhile, Arunabh is gearing up for a second season of the hit series and also plans to create another season for Pitchers, a more recent web-series by the company which aired on their independent online channel and was rated 9.6 on IMDB.

"Pitchers had initially started off as a mockumentary, to be filmed like the British TV show The Office. I also had an Indian Entourage in mind. Then, with India's start-up boom, I decided to create something closer to home," Arunabh reveals.

The five-episode series became so popular by August this year that it spawned a whole range of products with the show's tag line, 'Tu Beer Hai', merchandisers selling 50,000 t-shirts and over 500 different Pitchers-related memes surfacing online.

The series, revolving around the struggle of four young people who quit their jobs to start their own ventures, fetched over 7 million views on YouTube in three months and became the first Indian show to feature in IMDB's top 50 shows at rank 21, overtaking Seinfield, House of Cards, Narcos and Scrubs. "The audience at a summit I recently attended in New York was intrigued by the fact that I managed to outdo shows backed by TV network giants like ABC, CBS and FOX with a meagre budget. Also, I could keep the viewers hooked to a show with 40-minute-long episodes. I always say that if you give people the kind of content you want to see on television, they will watch it. The aim is to be the pioneers of web originals in India," Arunabh says.

A minion version of the show's poster featuring the four protagonists, played by Naveen Kasturia, Arunabh Kumar himself, Jitendra Kumar and Abhay Mahajan, has gone viral too.

"The show has managed to make stars out of nobodies, including me," Arunabh says, adding that he was at a restaurant recently when a group of boys seated at a nearby table sent over a beer. "I don't even like beer," he laughs.

He also recalls how he received e-mails from engineers who'd quit their jobs after watching the show to start their own business.

"I realised that with great power comes great responsibility and the content we put out there affects people," he reflects.

Pitchers was recently screened at the Microsoft office in Bangalore while some Goa fans of the show threw a 'Pitchers bash', where people got together for a marathon viewing of the show over beer.

Now, Arunabh is keen to explore dark humour and venture into films, but is in no hurry.

"By 2020, we will have created India's response to The Avengers. Our channel is already the desi whiplash to HBO," he chuckles.