Who Is Arunabh Kumar, The IIT Kharagpur Alumnus And Crorepati YouTuber?

Arunabh Kumar is the founder and the incumbent Chief Experiment Officer of The Viral Fever Media Labs.

NEW DELHI: Arunabh Kumar, who is also affectionately known as The Qtiyapa Guy (TQG), is the founder and former Chief Experiment Officer of the Viral Fever Media (TVF) Labs - which is one of India’s leading YouTube channels. A small-town guy from Bihar, Arunabh Kumar is also known for producing popular web series like Kota Factory, Panchayat, TVF Pitchers, Tripling etc.

Family Background

Born into a middle-class family on November 26, 1982, Arunabh Kumar spent his childhood in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur. Since his childhood, he took a keen interest in extra-curricular activities in school and never hesitated from voicing his ideas, and opinions on even the most complicated subjects. Since his parents wanted him to get a better education, they moved to various cities and finally settled in Jaipur, Rajasthan. A product of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Vidyashram School, Arunabh later went to Kota to prepare for IIT JEE. Through his hard work and determination, he managed to clear the prestigious engineering exam and went to the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur to pursue B.Tech in Electrical Engineering. Both his father and mother, Prensheela Kumari, are retired school principals. He has two brothers. Arunabh met his wife Shruti Ranjan in 2013 at IIT Bombay where she was pursuing her master’s in environmental science. The duo, after dating each other for a long time, got married in 2022. His wife Shruti began her career as an RTT practitioner and now works as a Theta Healing Practitioner. She is also a part-time photographer.

Career In Film-Making

After obtaining his B.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering, Arunabh took up a job with the US Air Force as a Research Consultant in Bombay in 2006. Back then, he was preparing to shift his base to Tokyo. It was during those times that he decided to resign from his job and pursue a career in filmmaking. He approached several production houses but had to face rejection most of the time. However, his struggle came to an end when he got a job offer from Red Chillies Entertainment as an assistant director in 2017. There, his job responsibilities included everything from running around, taking printouts, and helping with every task on and offset.

He also worked as an assistant director to Farah Khan in her hugely successful film ‘Om Shanti Om’ which starred Shah Rukh Khan. Due to the financial crunch even after three years of hard work and struggle, he began writing short films and documentaries, made music videos, and shot ads and corporate films for a steady income. He even thought of commencing his own TV show, Engineer’s Diary, and sent a proposal to MTV. However, the channel rejected his proposal. It was at this point, Due to this rejection, Arunabh shifted his focus to YouTube – a global video-sharing platform. 

The Launch Of TVF 

In 2010, he launched The Viral Fever (TVF). Despite a slow start, the channel shot to fame with the video “Rowdies” - a parody of the MTV show Roadies. Since then, there was no looking back for TVF and with the release of shows like Pitchers, Tripling, and Kota Factory, the channel gained immense popularity and now has around 11 million subscribers. His ‘Permanent Roommates’ was the second most-watched web series in the world.

Though not officially confirmed, Arunabh Kumar’s net worth is believed to be in crores today. Arunabh’s name was mired in controversy after multiple sexual harassment complaints were filed against him, which forced him to step down as the CEO of TVF in 2017. However, he rejoined the company after his name was 

Awards & Honours

Arunabh is a recipient of several awards and honours. In 2014, he was titled the Newsmaker of the Year by AFAQs. The same year, he was also titled the Men of the Year by Men’s World. In 2015, he made it to Fortune’s Top 40 under 40 list. He was also included in the List of Most Influential Young Indians by GQ magazine in the year 2015.

In 2016, he made it to the 40 under forty list by The Economic Times. In 2021, he won four Flyx Filmfare OTT Awards 2020 for the first season of Panchayat. His shows, including Kota Factory, Yeh Meri Family and Gullak have 9 plus ratings out of 10 by IMDb.