8 ‘Engineer’s Diary’ was his major conception driven by a dream to make TV shows that the youth would enjoy. It was first pitched at MTV but never came to fruition after being rejected by channels everywhere.
9 He later set out to create his own show by joining the creativity of employee and current partner Amit Golani. Their first uploaded video received the second highest views in the entertainment section.
Arunabh says:
Luckily Canon camera, YouTube and my rejection came at the right time, all three of them coincided. This college Qtiyapa(The TVF) is a show I had conceived for MTV. That show also got rejected after a lot of resources went into it. That was one of the best rejections in my life, else we wouldn’t have Qtiyapa with us…
10 He recommends movies such as Khosla ka Ghosla, Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club and It’s a Wonderful Life for inspiring his hunger for smart storytelling.
11 He sparked a friendly relationship with college senior Sundar Pichai who belonged to the same hostel as him. Sundar Pichai is being pitched to appear in TVF’s latest creation- TVF pitchers which is being seen as analogous to ‘Silicon Valley’.
12 His closest brush with bankruptcy was during the production of ‘JHA.2’ which lampooned Ra.One.
13 His biggest vision for the company is to scale it to the heights of a world famous entertainment brand, stating it to become India’s answer to Disney.
14 He was awarded for his short film “The wish divers”, in a contest organized by Network18 and PnC Communications.
15 He has been included in several publication lists such as ‘The Economic Times 40 under Forty list for 2016′,’ Fortune Top 40 under 40 list for 2015 and 2016′, ‘GQ’s List of Most Influential Young Indians for 2015 and 2016’, ‘”Entrepreneur” List of 10 Geniuses Redefining Creativity’ and several others.
The Viral Fever has proven to be an infectious hit all over the country and has spread from a one-man operation to a team of more than 100 people all over India. For the past few years, they’ve established their position of viral content creators with segments like ‘TVF Pitchers’, ‘Barely Speaking with Arnub’, ‘Chai Sutta’ and ‘Permanent Roommates’.
The company spans 2 offices in Mumbai and Delhi and is ranked as the second biggest new media network in India in terms of youth entertainment. Even today, the story of Arunabh Kumar rings in the ears of budding entrepreneurs as a definitive Bollywood-esque ‘rags to riches’ story.
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