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Arunabh Kumar
Indian web series director (born 1982) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Arunabh Kumar (born 26 November 1982) is an Indian entrepreneur, producer, director, screenwriter, and an actor. He is the founder of streaming platform, The Viral Fever (TVF). His shows are often characterized by parody, lightheartedness, youth oriented, and competitive exams in India.
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Early life and career
Arunabh Kumar was brought up in Muzaffarpur in Bihar.[1] After completing his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, he joined Shah Rukh Khan's production house Red Chillies Entertainment as an assistant's position under Farah Khan. He was the assistant director for the movie Om Shanti Om.[2]
MTV rejected his creation Engineer's Diary which led to the launching of The Viral Fever.[3][4]
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Personal life
In 2022, Kumar married his girlfriend of 10 years, Shruti Ranjan.[5]
Sexual misconduct allegations
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In March 2017, Kumar was accused of sexual harassment in a Medium post by someone using the pseudonym "Indian Fowler".[6] 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".[7][8][9] After the anonymous blog post, nine more women came forward and made allegations of sexual misconduct against Kumar.[10][11] After almost three days, there were varying claims of 6 or 50 additional women who accused him of sexual harassment.[12]
On 29 March 2017, Kumar was booked for molestation after a woman filed a police complaint in Mumbai.[13] Following day, a second FIR was filed against him on charges of sexual harassment.[14] 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 Kumar 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.".[15][16][17]
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.[18][19] 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.[20][21]
After a hiatus of 3 years, Kumar rejoined TVF (The Viral Fever) as a mentor.[22][23] On 28 December 2022, Mumbai court acquitted Kumar of all the charges. This was 5 years after he faced charges for sexual misconduct.[24][25][26][27] The court said that the case, which had been filed based on the blog post, was filed three years after the alleged incidents and this was an "unexplained and unreasonable" delay. The court determined that the case did not have "concrete evidence" and was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, due to the fact that it could have been filed due to a business rivalry since all witnesses worked in the same industry.[24]
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Filmography
Films
Television
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Awards and achievements
He was included in the list of The Economic Times 40 under Forty list for 2016,[28] Fortune Top 40 under 40 list for 2015,[29] GQ's List of Most Influential Young Indians for 2015 and 2016,[30] "Entrepreneur" List of 10 Geniuses Redefining Creativity of 2016.[31] He was also awarded Man's World - Men of the Year in 2014,[32] and AFAQs- "Newsmaker of the Year" in 2014.[33]
References
External links
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