⚡How did The Viral Fever Go Viral?
From Jeetu Bhaiya from Kota Factory to Abhilash from Aspirants, here's how TVF has cracked the code to virality.
What's common between Jeetu Bhaiya, Aspirants Abhilash, Guru and SK and Pitchers Naveen, Yogi, Jitu, Mandal?
These viral shows are all born by The Viral Fever!
How did TVF crack the formula to virality?
Read on.
History First
Soon after engineering, Arunabh Kumar, an IIT Kharagpur graduate, realised his true calling was storytelling.
After a stint as an assistant director at Red Chillies, he identified a market gap - there was no content for Indian adults aged 18 to 35.
So, he pitched this idea to MTV.
But it was rejected!
MTV said it was delusional and no one would watch it.
Arunabh decided to make his own show.
Soon after, it produced “Rowdies Qtiyapa”, a spoof of MTV’s Roadies.
And guess what?
It got 1.1 M views in just 5 days!
This was even before Jio made the internet cheap, making it a huge deal!
With this validation, it started creating different shows around different topics.
In 2014, Permanent Roommates made its debut and by 2017, the show became the most viewed long-form web series in the world!
In 2015, TVF Pitchers was released, and in the same year, it made it to IMDb’s top 250 list of TV Shows, surpassing hits like The Daily Show and Suits!
In fact, TVF Pitchers secured a stellar 9.7/10 IMDb rating, leaving behind Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones!
What worked for the company?
Simple: understanding the target audience and their wants really, really well.
Be it families, ups and downs of relationships or the chaos of college life, TVF made relatable and authentic content around all themes for middle-class young Indians.
TVF did not just follow trends. It set them.
At a time when young Indians were binging Western shows like Friends, TVF wanted to offer fresh yet relatable high-quality content in the Indian context.
After conquering YouTube with 12.3M subscribers, it stepped into the OTT world and now produces shows for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5 and SonyLiv.
This licensing of content formed TVF’s largest revenue source (in FY22), contributing to 65.9% of its revenue.
It also gets advertising revenue from brands like Ola, Tata Tiago, and Kingfisher by featuring their products in its shows.
Major lessons from TVF?
Content creation is a long term game. TVF started way back in 2010 when content creation was frowned upon or seen as “delusional”.
Stay true to your passion and believe in yourself. The idea of TVF was rejected by MTV and today it is one the biggest competitors of MTV. The world will push you down, but you have to stand strong with your head held high.
Which is your favourite TVF show? Let us know in the comments!