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Kota Factory is an Indian Hindi-language web series created by Saurabh Khanna, directed by Raghav Subbu & produced by Arunabh Kumar for The Viral Fever. The story is set in Kota, Rajasthan, an educational hub famous for its coaching centres. The show follows the life of 16-year-old Vaibhav (Mayur More) who moves to Kota from Itarsi. It shows the life of students in the city, and Vaibhav's efforts to get into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) by cracking the Joint Entrance Examination. It also stars Jitendra Kumar, Ahsaas Channa, Alam Khan, Ranjan Raj, Revathi Pillai and Urvi Singh in prominent roles.[1]

Kota Factory
Official release poster
Genre	Drama Comedy
Created by	Saurabh Khanna Arunabh Kumar
Directed by	Raghav Subbu
Starring	Mayur More Ranjan Raj Alam Khan Jitendra Kumar Revathi Pillai Urvi Singh Ahsaas Channa
Composers	Karthik Rao Simran Hora
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Sameer Saxena
Cinematography	Jerin Paul
Editor	Gourav Gopal Jha
Running time	30 – 45 minutes
Production company	The Viral Fever
Release
Original network	TVFPlay YouTube (Season 1) Netflix (Season 2)
Original release	16 April 2019 (2019-04-16) – present

Saurabh Khanna, the creator of the show, said that he aims to change the popular narrative surrounding Kota and preparation for IIT-JEE & NEET in Indian pop culture to a more positive one via the show.[2] The series premiered simultaneously on TVFPlay and YouTube from 16 April to 14 May 2019. The series received a generally positive response from critics, praising its monochrome setting, realism, and the major technical aspects of the series.[3]

On 30 August 2021, Netflix announced that the series would be renewed for a second season, which was released on 24 September 2021.[4] On 26 September 2021, Raghav Subbu confirmed that the third season was in the works.[5]

Cast

Main

• Mayur More as Vaibhav Pandey
• Ranjan Raj as Balmukund Meena
• Alam Khan as Uday Gupta
• Jitendra Kumar as Jeetu Bhaiya
• Ahsaas Channa as Shivangi Ranawat
• Revathi Pillai as Vartika Ratawal
• Urvi Singh as Meenal Parekh

Recurring cast

Episodes

Series overview

Overview of Kota Factory seasons

Series	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released	Network
1	5		16 April 2019 (2019-04-16)	14 May 2019 (2019-05-14)	TVFPlay YouTube
2	5		24 September 2021 (2021-09-24)		Netflix

Season 1

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Some of the plot summaries exceed the 200-word max preferred by WP:TVPLOT. (September 2020)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Viewers (millions)
1	1	"Inventory"	Raghav Subbu	Abhishek Yadav	16 April 2019 (2019-04-16)	58[6]
Vaibhav comes to Kota in the middle of academic year and is allotted the last batch of Prodigy classes, A10, after being denied at Maheshwari classes. He meets Meena at his new homestay, also in Prodigy, who tells him that he should not accept A10. He speaks to Deepak, the Head Manager of Prodigy but is denied any change. Then, he meets Jeetu Bhaiya, the Physics lecturer, who gives Vaibhav a 50 question paper, and tells him too complete it by the next day. With the help of Meena and Uday (another student of Prodigy), he solves 42 questions by copying the solutions from different books, but not able to do the rest 8. The next day, Jeetu Bhaiya points out his cheating and Vaibhav accepts that he cheated. Jeetu Bhaiya allots Vaibhav A5 batch, because of his hard work.
2	2	"Assembly Line"	Raghav Subbu	Saurabh Khanna & Abhishek Yadav	23 April 2019 (2019-04-23)	36[7]
Vaibhav struggles to sleep, eat food at mess, drink water (which he finds salty) and study for long hours at Kota. Uday and Meena try to help their new friend but all in vain. One day, Jeetu Bhaiya acknowledges about his problems and helps him with the solutions. Eventually, within 21 days, Vaibhav has all the struggles sorted with all the help he has.
3	3	"Optimization"	Raghav Subbu	Abhishek Yadav & Sandeep Jain	30 April 2019 (2019-04-30)	41[8]
Vaibhav is not able to cope up with Inorganic Chemistry and blames the teachers who teach the subject. But even after changing 3 teachers for the subject, he bursts out all his anger and frustration in front of Meena, who then takes him to Jeetu Bhaiya. He advises Vaibhav to drop the subject.
4	4	"Shutdown"	Raghav Subbu	Saurabh Khanna, Abhishek Yadav	7 May 2019 (2019-05-07)	36[9]
Jeetu Bhaiya advises his students to take a break from their JEE studies and tells them to visit their school for their practicals. Uday tells Vaibhav that he wishes to roam around Kota with Shivangi, his girlfriend. He also tells Vaibhav that he should also come with them and a girl named Vartika. While Uday discusses this with Vaibhav, Meena is busy talking with Meenal, a studious but nerdy girl from their class. Meena first plans to study with Vaibhav, but then backs out by the saying of Meenal. As Vaibhav disagrees to go, Meena goes instead of him. As Vartika too insists to study, she takes help from Vaibhav, and studies while Uday, Shivangi, Meena and Meenal roam around Kota. Vaibhav and Vartika start developing feelings for each other, but don't speak it out. Wanting to be with Vartika, Vaibhav gives an exam along with her to go to Maheshwari, although he does not want to go there. After the exams, Vaibhav and Vartika start studying for 12th as well. Meena finds it useless to roam around Kota, as he starts developing feelings for Meenal, but she says that she will be moving to the US. He thought that it would have been better to study instead of roaming around.
5	5	"Overhaul (Season Finale)"	Raghav Subbu	Abhishek Yadav	14 May 2019 (2019-05-14)	34[10]
Vaibhav is shocked to know that he has been selected for Maheshwari classes. Deepak and Batla Sir talk to the group of students who are selected for Maheshwari, including Vaibhav. The bunch are allotted in A1 to demotivate the students from changing their coaching centre. Vaibhav had settled in Prodigy now and never intended to leave. Jeetu Bhaiya is also brought to talk with the group about this, and all students say that they are not going to Maheshwari. Jeetu Bhaiya insists Vaibhav go to Maheshwari, as there are more students and focus there. Vaibhav is reluctant at first, but after consulting with his parents on Uday's advice, he decides to join Maheshwari. He has a farewell from Shivangi, Meena, Uday, and Vartika. Uday drops him off at Maheshwari, where he is allotted A3. He meets a nervous student named Sushrut, who is in A7.

Season 2

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Viewers (millions)
6	1	"Reasoning"	Unknown	Unknown	24 September 2021 (2021-09-24)	N/A
Vaibhav is preparing to attend his first day at Maheshwari classes and the orientation before the class. He is accompanied by his new roommate Sushrut and on his way to Maheshwari. He notices a billboard with Jeetu Bhaiya on it. At the orientation, Mr. Maheshwari welcomes the students with a demoralizing introduction to the battle they are fighting followed by an oath. In the Physics class, the teacher fanatically writes on the white board while the students robotically copy it down in the notebooks without any explanation and the class is completely un-engaging. Back at Prodigy classes, previous friends of Vaibhav get to know that Jeetu Bhaiya has left the institute. Vaibhav discovers through Sushruts mother that he is depressed and she is scared that he might harm himself and when Vaibhav enters Sushruts room, he finds his friend crying and questioning whether JEE is an important exam to appear in. While seeking help from other seniors about the issue, the duo figures out that others also have similar concerns. Jeetendra is busy in building his institute when all the friends of Vaibhav and the duo meet Jeetu and address the concerns of Sushrut.
7	2	"Control System"	Unknown	Unknown	24 September 2021 (2021-09-24)	N/A
At Jeetu's class, Meena is missing, apparently due to not keeping well and Vaibhav is also now feeling engaged in his Chemistry Maheshwari class. Jeetu addresses the duo's concerns about the Physics faculty at Maheshwari not teaching up to the mark even after having brilliant qualifications. Vaibhav attempts to leave Maheshwari premises during daytime to attend Jeetu's classes but is blocked by the Guard. Vaibhav convinces his Physics faculty to allow him to not attend his class. Jeetu secures funding from one of his old friends who is into investment. Shivangi addresses Meenas female attraction issues, introduces him to masturbation, and encourages Vaibhav to confront Mr. Maheshwari. Vaibhav tries to bribe the security guard but is instead sent to Mr Maheshwari. Meena gets addicted to Masturbation and his guilt is addressed by Jeetu Bhaiya. Mr Maheshwari allows Vaibhav to attend Jeetu's classes.
8	3	"Atmospheric Pressure"	Unknown	Unknown	24 September 2021 (2021-09-24)	N/A
At Maheshwari, many other students are now raising concerns about teaching abilities of the Physics Faculty. Jeetu hires a female teacher for teaching Chemistry.
9	4	"Repair & Maintenance"	Unknown	Unknown	24 September 2021 (2021-09-24)	N/A
When a bout of jaundice slows Vaibhav down in his studying, Jeetu insists he calls his only hope to get well quickly: his mother.
10	5	"Packaging"	Unknown	Unknown	24 September 2021 (2021-09-24)	N/A
JEE results send Kota into celebration mode and give Vaibhav, Meena and Uday glimpses into their own futures, but the occasion comes with sad truths.

Production

Development

The screenwriter Saurabh Khanna who worked on The Viral Fever's Yeh Meri Family, started the scriptwriting process of his another project for TVF, after the release of Yeh Meri Family in July 2018.[11] It was reported that the series is based on a teenager who joins a coaching institute that prepares students for the Indian Institute of Technology entrance examination(JEE Advanced), and deals with intense academic pressure and a colourful hostel experience. While Khanna compared the script of the series to Biswa Kalyan Rath's Laakhon Mein Ek, a similar web show released in late 2017, and a documentary An Engineered Dream, by Hemant Gaba, Khanna stated that the script is distinctively different from both the works as this show is set in India's coaching hub of Kota in Rajasthan.[2]

"The popular narrative surrounding Kota and IIT preparation in Indian pop culture is that parents torment their children by pushing them through the process and it’s a one-sided representation. It’s not like everyone is in Kota with a passion other than clearing the exam. There are also studious kids, but people who study aren’t celebrated in the country. We make films on mavericks, but never something like A Beautiful Mind. We have developed this tendency to portray people who study and get nine-to-five jobs as these drones whose passions have been sucked away. It’s like there’s not a story in their life unless they quit their jobs and climb the Himalayas."

— Saurabh Khanna in an interview with the Scroll.in about the scripting of Kota Factory.[12]

Casting

Khanna drew the inspiration of the series as he and the creative team of TVF (Arunabh Kumar, Amit Golani, and Biswapati Sarkar) were IIT graduates. The series star Jitendra Kumar in a principal character as Jeetu Bhaiya, as like all the TVF series and sketches featuring Kumar. He was also an ex-IIT graduate studied in Kota, and his experience made them easier for him to work in the series.[13] Khanna stated about his role, adding that, "Teaching is a very humble, underrated profession, where those who practice it are not that high up on the social ladder. That's not how it is in Kota. Teachers are heavily paid and they are, consequently, under pressure to extract the best from students. Jeetu is one such teacher, a well-to-do guy with a taste for fine things in life. He is a motivator, a friend, a guide, students' 'agony aunt' and does not do lip service to make a student feel good. When Vaibhav requests to be allowed to move up to the elite students’ batch, Jeetu snaps at him to not beg."[14] One of the characters Uday, is played Alam Khan who also appeared in Laakhon Mein Ek, having the similar storyline and role as of Kota Factory, but Khanna conveyed it as unintentional.[15]

Filming

Kota Factory was shot in colour and graded into monochrome later during post production (black-and-white). The shooting was kickstarted in January 2019 and ended within 30 days.[16] After the announcement of the series' second season being renewed, the makers started their works of writing in July 2019.[17] The team initially planned to shoot the series in March 2020, but the shooting was delayed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India. The makers later started the shooting process in September 2020, and was filmed across two to three months in and around Madhya Pradesh. The crew shot the series under the supervision of a special team designated as in order to observe the crew members abiding the COVID-19 protocol. In January 2021, the makers announced that the shooting of the series had been wrapped.^{[citation needed]}

Soundtrack

Season 1

The first season's soundtrack is composed by Karthik Rao and Simran Hora, and was produced by Ankur Tewari. It features twelve original compositions with two songs "The Gentleman" sung and written by Simran Hora and "Main Bola Hey!" sung by Abhishek Yadav, Manish Chandwani and Karthik Rao. The soundtrack album was released on 23 May 2019, through media streaming platforms and in YouTube through the official channel of TVF, where the songs are independently released without launching a separate jukebox format.[18][19] In addition to the original soundtrack, Kota Factory also features two songs composed by Ankur Tewari, Karsh Kale and his rock band The Ghalat Family, whereas the songs were written by Ankur Tewari.[20][21] The songs were released as a part of the additional soundtrack released on 3 June 2019.[22][23]

Kota Factory: Season 1 (Music from Tvf Original Series)
Soundtrack album by Karthik Rao, Simran Hora
Released	23 May 2019 (2019-05-23)
Recorded	2018–2019
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	25:01
Language	Hindi
Label	Contagious Online Media Network Pvt Ltd
Producer	Ankur Tewari

Season 2

The second season's soundtrack is also composed by Karthik Rao and Simran Hora. It features nine original compositions with two songs "Tere Jaisa" sung by Vaibhav Bundhoo and Kamakshi Khanna and "Umbilical" sung by Jazim Sharma and written by Alok Ranjan Srivastava. The soundtrack album was released on 24 September 2021.

Kota Factory: Season 2 (Music from the Netflix Series)
Soundtrack album by Karthik Rao, Simran Hora
Released	24 September 2021 (2021-09-24)
Recorded	2021
Genre	Soundtrack
Language	Hindi
Label	Contagious Online Media Network Pvt Ltd

Themes

Kota Factory drew inspiration from the life of aspiring engineering students, who join the coaching institute in Kota, to crack the IIT entrance exam. This plot has been found similar to the 2009 film 3 Idiots, the web series Laakhon Mein Ek and the docu-drama An Engineer's Dream.[3] But, Tanul Thakur of the British magazine The Wire, deploys the realistic portrayals of the series as compared to the feature films based on the same theme. Thakur stated that the first half of the series is interesting due to the "intellectual curiosity about the city, and its people". He added that apart from the realistic portrayals, it also added the acceptance to abnormalities in the coaching life, as instead of critiquing the coaching institute. The series also has the theme of how the life of a student in Kota goes it tells the hardships of a student.[24]

Release

Kota Factory sponsored with Unacademy in order to promote the series, based on its storyline.[2] In December 2018, TVF released the official teaser through its YouTube channel which received wide response from audiences.[25] Later, the official trailer of the first season was unveiled on 28 March 2019.[26] The series consisting of five episodes was released simultaneously through TVF Play and YouTube from 16 April 2019, with each episode being aired per week. The series finale premiered on 14 May 2019.

After the second season being renewed Netflix acquired the distribution rights of the series;[27] an official announcement regarding Season 2 was made on 3 March 2021, where Netflix released several other original contents in their 2021 slate.[28] This marked TVF's second collaboration with the platform after Yeh Meri Family.[29] On 30 August 2021, Netflix announced that the second season of the series will premiere on 24 September 2021.

Reception

Devasheesh Pandey of News18 praised the cinematography, art direction, sound design as well as the acting performances of the show and gave it a rating of 3.5 out of 5 saying that, "Kota Factory maintains an edge over other shows in the genre, courtesy of its on-point, deadpan humour and a relatably bittersweet aftertaste of existential battle that the protagonist is facing."[30] Ishita Sengupta of The Indian Express found the show to be engaging and applauded it saying that, "The ingenuity of Kota Factory lies in its ability to deal with different narrative strands and coalesce them effortlessly." Ishita also felt that the performances of the actors, specially Mayur More and Ranjan Raj, add a lot of value to the show.[31] Rahul Desai of Film Companion was impressed with the mature depiction of the subject at hand and praised the acting performances as well as the writing of the show saying that, "Kota Factory’s biggest asset is its writing which somehow maintains a semi-dramatic progression without compromising on the factual tone of the series."[32]

Gautam Batra of Koimoi praised the direction and the acting performances of the show and gave it a rating of 4 out of 5 saying that, "the web series has taken a very less dramatic route to narrate the story which makes it extremely relatable watch."[33] Priyanka Bansal of The Quint praised the show for presenting a fresh perspective on the education system in India. Impressed with the acting performances, production quality and music of Kota Factory, Priyanka gave the show a rating of 3.5 out of 5 and said that, "If you are looking for something worthwhile, The Kota Factory can be a nice watch that will make you think not about death and gloom but leave you with optimism."[34] Tanul Thakur of The Wire praised the show for being realistic and relatable but felt that the show shies away from criticising the culture of coaching institutes prevalent in the Indian society.[24] Dilip D'Souza writing for The Caravan praised the storytelling, as well.[35]

References

External links

• Kota Factory at IMDb

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