The Viral Fever
| The Viral Fever | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pseudonym | TVF |
| Medium | English |
| Nationality |
 India |
| Years active | 2010 - present |
| Genres | Satirical, Spoof, comedy |
| Members |
Arunabh Kumar, Amit Golani, Biswapati Sarkar |
| Website |
theviralfever |
The Viral Fever also popularly abbreviated TVF is an online youth entertainment network launched in 2010. The main mode of this entertainment network is distribution of short comical videos that expose the funny side of everyday life which most of us fail to notice. The videos are freely available on YouTube. According to Arunabh Kumar the founder of this creative network, the idea behind the launch of the network was to reach out to the younger generation who seldom watch the television to either pass the time or for entertainment.[1] Recently they have diversified into 'Drama' with their web series Permanent Roommates which became the most watched branded web series in the world.
All the video clips from TVF studio has the seal of originality in tearing down, exposing, making a harmless jest and revealing what we often choose to ignore. TVF clips dissect Indian politics, movies, lifestyle, social concepts, etc, from a very different perspective and angle to initially evoke laughter [2] but also send out an unforgettable social message to the viewers. TVF videos already have 1,020,114 subscribers on YouTube [3] It is the first YouTube based channel to reach a million subscribers for online content within the shortest time.[4]
History
The Viral Fever Media Labs was founded by Arunabh Kumar an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, in 2010.[6] Arunabh had very unique ideas regarding audio visual content creation and distribution.[7] for entertainment, however, as these ideas were not tested on how they would be received by the audience; most production house rejected his creations. Arunabh said, "When MTV rejected the idea, I think that was the best rejection of my life. Youth channels told me Indian youth doesn’t want to watch this. I wanted to prove them wrong. Had they accepted, the idea would have ended up in some maximum 10 to 15 episodes." Arunabh, together with a few friends, then started the Youtube channel, The Viral Fever. He said, "Greater internet penetration helped me a lot. We started with Inglorious Seniors (a spoof on Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds) which began as a fun venture. The first shoot happened with the help of friends. It received some 17,000 views making it the second most popular video in Indian entertainment category (barring movie trailers)." The group then did Rowdies, a spoof on reality show Roadies, which became the third most watched video at a million views that month. Kumar said, "After Rowdies, I knew we are on the right track. All big TV channels have been chasing the guy who plays Raghu for the last six months. I then took one year to figure out what exactly I wanted to do. I met students, prepared the ideas, production plans and everything."[8] This paved the way for The Viral Fever launch. At present, The Viral Fever Media Labs has the following ventures functioning under it:
- TVF - ONE (Online Network for Enterprises)
- TVF Branded Entertainment
- TVF Live
- TVF Production Labs
- TVF Recycle Bin
Members
At present, the TVF Group has a total team of 24 with 13 of them working full time and 11 as consultants in Mumbai and Delhi.[9]
- Arunabh Kumar
- Amit Golani
- Biswapati Sarkar[10]
- Nidhi Bisht
- Jeetendra Kumar
- Sameer Saxena
- Deepak Kumar Mishra
- Anant Singh
- Vipul Goyal
- Anandeshwar Dwivedi
- Tarun Singhal
- Naveen Kasturia
- Akansha Thakur
- Nidhi Singh
Notable Clips
- Q-Tiyapa Series: Q-tiyapa presents a twisted sense of humour.[11]
- Musical Parodies: This one features hilarious Ishq Wala Love songs.
- Originals: The series brings alive workplace parody.
- Mash Ups: A dig on entertainment, sports, leisure, and many more.
- The Making Of: The series that satirically takes a dig at the orthodox way in which commercial movies, daily soaps etc are made in India.
- Tech conversations with dad.
- Permanent Roommates.
- Chai Sutta Chronicles
- Barely Speaking with Arnub: The series that indirectly parodies popular Indian journalist Arnab Goswami. Arvind Kejriwal has visited the series.
Achievements
- TVF is the first company in India in the realm of entertainment network to blend reality and parody in their creation ushering in a new genre of entertainment.
- TVF conceptualized the idea of promoting movies through creation and distribution of original digital content. Ishq Wala song series is one such venture.[12]
- First online network to extract content contribution from A grade Bollywood celebrities (Shah Rukh Khan, Ayushmann Khurana, Anurag Kashyap, Ali Zafar, Parineeti Chopra, Ranveer Singh etc) [13]
- Creator and distributor of 12 online entertainment hits such as Qtiyapa, Barely Speaking with Arnub, Permanent Roommates, Chai Sutta Chronicles, The Making Of, Theatrical Trollers, etc.[14]
- Permanent Roommates became one of the most viewed web based digital contents consisting of 5 episodes attracting more than a million views per episode and overall 8 million plus viewership for all the episodes.[15]
- TVF was the sole representative at the International YouTube Fan Fest, 2013 from India.
See also
References
- ↑ "Entertainment channel for youth". Economic Times India. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ↑ "Entertainment Network for serious laughter". New Indian Express. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ↑ "YouTube Viewership and Subscribers". YouTube. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ↑ "All about TVF". Your Story. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ↑ http://www.hindustantimes.com/television/how-mtv-s-rejection-created-q-tiyapa/article1-1165973.aspx
- ↑ Niharika (21 April 2014). "Lessons in Laughter". Indian Express (Bhubaneshwar). Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ↑ "Arunabh’s concept about conventional reporting". Outlook India Magazine. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
- ↑ "How MTV’s rejection created Q-tiyapa". IBN Live. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
- ↑ Shetty, Shakti (23 February 2014). "Joking out loud: A look at comedy website The Viral Fever". Mid-Day. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ↑ Ram, Sharmila Ganesan (16 February 2014). "Age of parody". Times of India. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ↑ "Comedy series Q-Tiyapa". TVF-YouTube. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ↑ "Bollywood Movies promo through songs". Telegraph India. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ↑ "Celebrities in TVF Show". DNA India India. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
- ↑ "Most watched content from TVF". YouTube. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
- ↑ "Permanent Roommates exposes the funny side of love affair". YouTube. Retrieved 16 March 2015.