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FICCI FRAMES III: Arunabh Kumar spreads The Viral Fever

Its fever. Its viral. And it was started by a man called Arunabh Kumar. Shortened to TVF, the company produces content and is made up of several IITians, among others. A magazine wrote in January 2015, “The Viral Fever (TVF) team reminds me of film school grads — shaggy beards, ruffled hair, all bent over laptops, waiting for Premiere Pro to render videos. Most of the team is ex-IIT and was brought together by the owner, Arunabh Kumar. While Kumar is an eloquent media man, the rest of the team are like excited teenagers. They blush and giggle when you compliment their work. They look as if after the stuffy frustration of IIT, this is their second chance to be happy in life.”

On the last day of FICCI FRAMES 2023, there was a Master Class on

How to pitch and write for web series: Celebrating 11 years of TVF. Personnel associated with some of TVF’s top shows were on the panel.

Mr. Arunabh Kumar, Founder & CEO, The Viral Fever (TVF) and his team

Ms. Prerna Sharma, Creative Producer: Kota factory, Saas Bahu Achar Pvt Ltd, Girls Hostel and the Director of Audible Permanent Roommates

Mr. Vipul Mayank, Creative Producer – Gullak S3 and Panchayat S2. (The creative mind behind: Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi, Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, Instant Khichdi)

Mr. Vivek Kumar, Associate Creative Producer, Tripling 03, Gullak 03, Pitchers 02

Mr. Vaibhav Bundhoo, part of the TVF team.

Moderated by: Mr. Saurabh Varma, Film Maker & Chief Creative Officer, Content Engineers

Hailing from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, Kumar did his M. Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur (KGP). As true as the show from TVF, Kota-Factory, he ended up in Kota (one of India’s premier coaching centres, located in the state of Rajasthan) in 1998, right after 10th, to prepare for the Joint Entrance Examination, JEE, and was able to get into IIT KGP in 2001.

After deciding that media and entertainment were his true calling, he joined the unit of the ShahRukh Khan production, Om Shanti Om, as an assistant director to Farah Khan. Of his experience, he says, “I was fortunate to have landed the job of an Assistant Director on a film with none other than the King, thanks to @vaibhavmisra23, and seeing him on sets did not just teach me basics of film-making but also how to be a kind as well as charismatic human being.” That was in 2007.

When MTV rejected his pitch for a project, he decided to launch his own company. In fact, he has more than one company. Indusverse is India’s 1st Binge Read Comic-Books Brand, which is focused at telling character-led Indian stories, with world class art, and the company aims to redefine comic book culture in India’. And there is The Viral Fever (TVF), incorporated as Contagious Online Media Network Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai Area, India, building the most awesome Technology & Data Led Content Platform, for all content needs of young Indians, with a connected screen.’

On an industrial training visit to Goa, he found himself broke, with only a camera. To survive, he took on the job of a waiter, where he met some builders, who asked him to go to their sites and film the work in progress, in 2004. That was his first exposure to professional shooting. He went on to make short films. A little later, he started a production company called TVF Media Labs, in 2011, He decided to try and make his TV show, and put it on the website, and call it India’s 1st Online TV for Youth, which, today, we know as www.theviralfever.com, or TVF. On 21st Feb 2012, he along with his partners, launched the first original content to have gone viral ever in India, known as Rowdies, which was a spoof on Roadies. He helmed the first Branded Video, Web-Series, first Online Streaming Platform, and more. TVF created India’s 1st mainstream web-series called Permanent Room-mates. Arunabh created TVF Pitchers, which went on to become India’s 1st Web-Series to enter the list of Global Top 250 Shows in the world on IMDB. On Instagram, he describes himself as Founder & CEO @indusverse & Founder-TVF @theviralfever, aka Yogi Bhaiya (he played the part) of @TVFPitchers. In December 2022, Kumar was acquitted in a court case, filed against him in 2017.

Pitchers Season 2 started streaming on ZEE5 and TVF on December 23, 2022, and it saw the return of Naveen Kasturia, Arunabh Kumar, Abhay Mahajan, and Abhishek Banerjee in the lead roles. Singer and music composer Vaibhav Bundhoo, who composed loveable tracks in Pitchers, returned with the second season of the show, donning the hat of a director, jointly with Arunabh Kumar. Vaibhav believes that too much music is unnecessary and that silence has its own place in an episode. Arunabh also wrote the series. The series met with mixed reactions.

Some of his quotable quotes, heard at FICCI FRAMES 2023:

*We call our company a school. Everybody is learning. Everybody is equal.

*One of our current team-members came-up and wanted to join. We saw a spark in him. But there was a hitch. He had no place to stay. So, we offered him our cramped office space, and he was happy to live there.

*Anybody can come up with an idea. He or she will then have to pitch it to say 20 or more of us. Everybody’s opinion matters, and must be accepted and discussed.

*Only if all, or almost all the persons listening to the idea, are convinced that it is good, we go ahead and develop it.

*There are no bad scripts, only good scripts and incomplete scripts. Most incomplete scripts can be converted to good scripts.

*I am a big fan of Sai Paranjpye (the Pune-based film-maker who made Katha and Chashm-e-Bud-door, now 85). Katha is among my all-time favourite films. I also loved Sacha Baron-Cohen’s The Dictator (2012).

*In our team, we have so many accents! We even have a man from Mauritius (I hope I got that right. He must be referring to Vaibhav Bundhoo, because it is in Mauritius that they spell Bundhoo that way. The official language of Mauritius is French and the street language is Creole. But a significant number of Mauritians, who were taken to the island from India by the British as indentured labour, speak Bhojpuri too. But at FICCI FRAMES, he spoke perfect English and Hindi).

*I know how to build teams. So far, I must have mentored over 200 persons.

Saurabh Varma, who moderated the session, was obviously a die-hard fan of TVF. He has marketed, or has been a part of, 950+ films, in almost all Indian languages. He has directed, written and ‘doctored’ several films, including the upcoming web series, Tiwari, starring Urmila Matondkar, and the feature film, Mickey Virus (2013). His short film, Girl in Red, has garnered 18 million views on YouTube. Saurabh Varma is presently Chief Creative Officer and Film-maker for Content Engineers, and has previously worked as CMO, Reliance Jio Studios, INOX, Reliance Entertainment and PVR Cinemas.

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