Arunabh Kumar (born 26 November 1982) is an Indian entrepreneur, producer, director, screenwriter, and an actor. He is the founder of

streaming platform An over-the-top media service (also known as over-the-top television, or simply OTT) is a digital distribution service of video and audio delivered directly to viewers via the public Internet, rather than through an over-the-air, cable, satell ...

, The Viral Fever (TVF). His shows are often characterized by

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

, lightheartedness, youth oriented, and competitive exams in India.

Early life and career

Arunabh Kumar was brought up in

Muzaffarpur Muzaffarpur () is a city located in Muzaffarpur district on the banks of Burhi Gandak River, Burhi Gandak river in the Tirhut division of the Indian state of Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of the Tirhut division, the Muzaffarpur distri ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. After completing his B.Tech. in

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

IIT Kharagpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT-KGP) is a public institute of technology, research university, and autonomous institute established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal. Founded in 1951, the in ...

, he joined

Shah Rukh Khan Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as the "Padishah, Baadshah of Bollywood" and "King Khan", he has Shah Rukh K ...

's production house

Red Chillies Entertainment Red Chillies Entertainments Private Limited, doing business as Red Chillies Entertainment; abbreviated as RCE is an Indian entertainment company established by actor Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri Khan in 2002. It was transformed from the d ...

as an assistant's position under

Farah Khan Farah Khan Kunder (; born 9 January 1965) is an Indian film director, writer, film producer, actress, dancer and choreographer who works predominantly in Hindi films. Khan has choreographed more than a hundred songs in over 80 films, winning th ...

. He was the assistant director for the movie ''

Om Shanti Om ''Om Shanti Om'' (transl. literally to ''Peace Be With You'') is a 2007 Hindi-language romantic fantasy film written and directed by Farah Khan, co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh, and produced by Gauri Khan under Red Chillies E ...

''.

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

rejected his creation ''Engineer's Diary'' which led to the launching of The Viral Fever.

Personal life

In 2022, Kumar married his girlfriend of 10 years, Shruti Ranjan.

Sexual misconduct allegations

In March 2017, Kumar was accused by an anonymous person, who used the pseudonym "Indian Fowler" on website Medium. In the post titled "The Indian Uber — That is TVF", she wrote that she was propositioned and sexually harassed by Kumar on multiple occasions and that it had become "routine". After the anonymous blog post, nine more women came forward and made allegations of sexual misconduct against Kumar. After almost three days, there were 50 women who accused him for sexual allegations. On 29 March 2017, he was booked for molestation after a woman filed a police complaint in Mumbai. Following day, a second FIR was filed against him on charges of sexual harassment. The first complainant was a 26-year-old woman who worked for a production house and was also a writer. The incident, she alleged, took place at TVF's office in May 2016, when she interacted with Arunabh over some project. TVF denied all the allegations and said that they would "leave no stone unturned to find the author of the article and bring them to severe justice for making such false allegations.". Following the allegations, Kumar was arrested on 22 April 2017 but was released on bail the same day after paying a bond of Rs. 10,000. On 16 June 2017, Kumar who was accused in multiple sexual harassment cases, stepped down as TVF CEO and gave the charge to Dhawal Gusain. After a hiatus of 3 years, He rejoined TVF (The Viral Fever) as a mentor. On 28 December 2022, Mumbai court

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal means that the criminal prosecution has failed to prove that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charge presented. It certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an o ...

Kumar of all the charges, 5 years after he faced charges for sexual misconduct.

Filmography

Films

Television

Awards and achievements

He was included in the list of The Economic Times 40 under Forty list for 2016, Fortune Top 40 under 40 list for 2015, GQ's List of Most Influential Young Indians for 2015 and 2016, "Entrepreneur" List of 10 Geniuses Redefining Creativity of 2016. He was also awarded Man's World - Men of the Year in 2014, and AFAQs- "Newsmaker of the Year" in 2014.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Arunabh Living people Businesspeople from Bihar IIT Kharagpur alumni People from Muzaffarpur 1982 births Comedy YouTubers