Kota Factory is one of the more popular, relatable, and wholesome web series to have come out of India. Created by Saurabh Khanna and Arunabh Kumar, the show has been hailed for creating the perfect mix of nostalgia and novelty. And here are some lesser-known facts about the show:
1. India’s first black-and-white web series, the entire show was shot in color originally. During post-production, it was graded into monochrome.
2. Jitendra Kumar, who plays Jeetu Bhaiya on the show, is an IIT alumnus. He also used to actually teach students Physics, to pay for his expenses, during his struggle period as an actor.
Jitendra Kumar studied at IIT-Kharagpur, where he was part of the Hindi dramatics society.
3. Saurabh Khanna, the creator of the show, actually studied in Kota for the entrance exams and later, taught in one of the institutes as well.
Kota also happens to be the hometown of Sameer Saxena, the show’s executive producer.
4. Alam Khan, who plays Uday in the series, has coincidentally also been a part of another show about Kota coaching centers, Laakhon Mein Ek (on Amazon Prime Video).
5. Raghav Subbu, the show’s director, shared that they struggled a lot with casting the ‘autowallah’ in S1. At one point, Subbu wanted Amitabh Bachchan to play the role.
The role was ultimately played by Deepak Kumar Mishra.
6. The show’s opening sequence featuring the auto wallah was also one of the more difficult sequences to shoot.
The sound guy was hiding between the two actors riding the auto. Deepak Kumar Mishra could not even see ahead while driving because his vision was obstructed by the cameras. So, he was being guided by the rest of the crew while driving.
7. Mayur More, the protagonist of the show, actually starred in a short film about an IIT aspirant and that’s what convinced Abhishek Yadav, the writer of the show, to cast him.
The film, titled Carbon Copy – A Tale of Two Brothers, also stars Namash Bhardwaj. And like Kota Factory, it was also created in association with Unacademy.
8. Ranjan Raj, who plays Meena, sent his audition by recording it on a phone, at his home. He is actually 25, though he plays a teenager in the show.
9. The creators set up a fake shoot to distract the crowd, so that they could shoot another scene in a relatively empty street, and with limited noise.
At the fake shoot, one of the crew members pretended to be a cameraman (with a closed camera), just so it may appear realistic enough to the audience. The scene that was actually being shot was the climax of Season 1 when Vaibhav leaves for Maheshwari classes, and Vartika comes to meet him. And the entire climax was shot in one night.
The actual climax shoot:
What a show!