Aspirants is the 7th show from TVF to enter into the list of top 250 shows of the world

TVF Aspirants

By Paresh B Mehta

TVF - The Viral Fever is the pioneer of Online content in India, starting as the first Creators of Original Online Content way back in 2012 with their Comedy Sketches to India's 1st Web Series ‘Permanent Roommates' in 2014 and also having the honours being the 1st Indian show in Top 50 Shows of the World with ‘TVF-Pitchers'.

Founded by Arunabh Kumar in 2012, TVF is one of most popular content brand in India that continues to woo the viewers even after a decade and creating a ripple in the OTT market with their latest hits like Aspirants, Gullak & Panchayat. These shows in particular have been cherished and applauded by everyone - from its viewers to the Biggest filmmaker of India - Karan Johar. We sat down with the cast & crew of TVF Aspirants to know more about the storytelling Brand whose motto is Lights…Camera…Experiments.

TVF is a company that nurtures writers, hence we begin with the Writer of the show. Deepesh, how was the process of writing ASPIRANTS and how does TVF culture bolster its writer's creativity?
Deepesh Jagadish (Writer of Aspirants): I have done a lot of writing - rewriting for Aspirants for more than a year. As the process of writing & re-writing is the primarily the key to a good piece of work, I had to conduct a lot of research, watched hundreds of interviews and lectures, read articles and had to directly and indirectly interact with hundreds of UPSC aspirants in Old Rajendra Nagar and Mukherji Nagar. Simultaneously I watched lots of interviews and personally interviewed UPSC Aspirants and asked them about their challenges, which they usually face during their preparatory studies and their relationships after exam. And that's how I found some common problems which almost every aspirant faces. I then wrote lots of episodic story drafts and narrated them to our development team along with Shreyansh for feedback and then I changed the script accordingly. TVF's work culture plays a major role in every writer, directors' work and helps in giving their best. TVF always believes that filmmaking is teamwork. That's why every person works as a team and respects every department equally. We give feedback to each other and take a keen interest in each other's work because the content is our priority as always.

Apoorva, you have received accolades from almost everyone for your work on Aspirants as a Director? What makes Aspirants special for you that you continued to shoot amidst Pandemic and other what nots?
Apoorva Singh Karki (Director of Aspirants): What makes Aspirants so special is that I was myself a UPSC ASPIRANT back in 2015. That is why, when I was approached for this show, it was like God's plan coming true for me. Regarding the shooting during Pandemic, it was quite hard and we had a responsibility of 200 crew members. So the first thing we planned was the safety of our crew members. Secondly we knew that we were showing a 2012 timeline so it was extremely difficult to shoot in live locations where everybody was wearing masks. We had to retake several times just because someone or the other wearing masks was visible in the background. I would like to thank my teams for planning and managing this issue brilliantly.

Shreyansh, You were the initiator to start putting ideas together for Aspirants with Deepesh. How did it all begin?
Shreyansh Pandey (Head of TVF Originals): TVF Aspirants is all about UPSC preparations, it is about relationships much more than hardships, about bridging the success and the failure, about humanising Bureaucracy and breaking the wall around the civil servants & most importantly about the sacrifices made while chasing success. And that is exactly what fascinated me about this world. We did a sketch around 'UPSC ki Tayyari' on The ScreenPatti, our Comedy centric brand for Short Form on its YouTube channel and it got over 10 Million Views. Six months later, I asked Deepesh if he would be willing to write the show and he jumped on to it. That is how it all began. What followed was 2 years of continuous writing, re-writing and narrating and incorporating feedback to better the scripts.

Deepesh: Yes the credit goes to Sherry for putting the first foot in this journey. We made two sketches, Rabish Ki Report - UPSC ki taiyari and UPSC Aspirant on Date. The response was phenomenal and randomly one day, Sherry called me and asked me to write the show on UPSC. We exchanged our ideas and perspectives with each other. As we immediately synced and started developing it, I met Appu (Apoorva) during the shoot of Flames & started jamming with him on his experiences as he himself was an Aspirant.

I think all of you Aspirants have gone on to become a national rage after the release of the show with thousands of YouTube clips, memes & reels being made with your characters. As actors, how special has TVF's Aspirants and your characters been for you?
Sunny Hinduja (plays Sandeep Bhaiya): The best thing about my character of Sandeep Bhaiya, is that it was very relatable to me, because the kind of passion and honesty he has to become an IAS Officer is exactly how I personally felt about becoming an actor. Appu, is himself an Aspirant and that also gave me a lot of confidence that he will be able to direct me well. But the arc of the character had a lot of pressure which I liked yet felt a bit apprehensive also. For me script is a Bible and I used to keep reading it. Appu also recommended me to incorporate a bit of Haryanvi accent, hence I started preparing for it. I started reading some of the preparation material for the exam and while preparing for the role, I ended up living the character of Sandeep Bhaiya.

Abhilash Thapliyal (playsd SK Sir): Whatever I am experiencing is through digital world. And the experience is absolutely humbling. I am just another performer in the city who wants to be a part of good stories and this seems to be a good start. Aspirants is my first web series and with my first web character getting so much love is special and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It's a dream debut for any actor in the web series space. Personally though I was going through a troubled phase in my life with my father fighting cancer, and I was completely held up with all the procedures. Thanks to Aspirants, I got an opportunity to momentarily disconnect from my real life struggles and bring SK to life. I think Aspirants helped me cope up with the struggles better.

Shivankit (plays Guri): Aspirants as an actor made me go back to my basics which is playing and preparing for a character. Because earlier playing characters in TVF's short form videos came very naturally to me. Full credit goes to Apoorva for my preparation of Guri. He was a strict task master and pushed me to my limits despite being my friend, ‘he kept friendship in pocket and hunter in his hands'.

How was it working with Apoorva, Director of the show and captain of the ship?
Deepesh: Appu is a great director and we share almost the same passion for cinema and music. He is really technically skilled as a director. But the most important thing about him is, he always thinks from the emotional perspective of the story not just from technical perspective. That's why he is able to connect so well with the characters. And I think this is the biggest skill, a director must-have. Apoorva's biggest quality as a director is his ability to capture emotions. It is bang on and he is fun to work with.

Shivankit: Appu as a director is someone who does not compromise on his lunch dinner and breakfast and that is the big achievement. He behaves more like a human being on set - jisko pyaas aur bhook lagti hai...and that's a rare quality of a director.

Abhilash Thapliyal: I always say that any actor would have done this good a job with SK's character because the writing is bang on. SK became what it is because of constant discussions with Apoorva, the captain of the ship having clear picture of what he wants, even before we would reach the set.

Apoorva: They are very kind… but I would like to add that it has always been a teamwork at TVF and thanks to Arunabh Sir & Sherry the Creators of the show who started this, Deepesh is the most hardworking writer I have come across. There are people who do it as a job but Deepesh does it for passion. He has immense respect for the craft and every word he writes - he writes with love and respect for this beautiful medium.

Shreyansh, you have been in TVF for 6 years and have worked across brand partnerships, content strategy to now as Head of TVF Originals. What do you all think is special about TVF & it's content creation process and its Work Culture?
Shreyansh: What a journey it has been with so many memories and so much to learn every single day. Back in 2015, I was cracking Brand integrations in our stories working alongside the finest writers of the country and I can say that it has been the most I've learnt about story-telling, audience reception and the business of content. From there on to setting up channel teams, writing rooms, driving content development to leading Originals for the Most Popular & most loved Digital Content Brand of the country has been a great learning experience. IMO is what differentiates TVF is not just the process, rather the culture. A culture which is driven by meritocracy and thrives on honesty & collaborative momentum. 'Lights…Camera... Experiment', the motto given by our Founder - Arunabh Kumar, is what makes TVF the best Content Studio or let's say the best film school of the country.

Deepesh: Arunabh Sir knows every single person of TVF personally as well as their strengths and weaknesses. He has an emotional connection with everyone and has a vast and deep knowledge of creative content. I joined TVF in 2016 writing small sketches and 5 years later wrote a long form show like Aspirants. I would say that nobody can nurture, build and grow a team the way he does. That's why anyone who works in TVF grows like this and creates the history of storytelling. He is the leader every team needs.

Apoorva: I believe it is the honesty with which we approach the content along with inclusivity which makes TVF culture special. It is inclusivity that has created great shows for us. During narrations right from art director to a costume stylist we take and include everybody's feedback.

Abhilash Thapliyal: TVF taught me that their work is an extension of their personality. They are as sweet and simple as their characters and stories, and thus loved by all as much as the stories they tell. I have always wanted to work with TVF, especially for sketches and if I were to encapsulate it in a single word, I would say ‘Soul'. Every single TVF show has soul at its core and we all identify with it. Their creation can make me smile, cry or both at the same time. I am sure they are secret magicians living amongst us, posing as normal human beings. Hahahaha.

Sunny, your Instagram follower base has increased from 11K to 400K since the 1st episode of Aspirants release. Usually this kind of fandom is life changing for any actor. As an outside collaborator, let us have your thoughts about your association with TVF and their culture?
Yes, you are right. I never had expected this kind of love, but it has only happened because of the show and the credit goes to the entire team behind it. I am really grateful, as an actor you can't ask for anything more than this as for me it's the only truth - to perform and create magic. I have always loved their sketches like Qtiyapa & The Making of, which enamoured me. I heard Ekta Kapoor say somewhere that TVF & Arunabh are the father of Digital Content in India and I believe in it. Arunabh and I go back long and together we used to always interact and encourage each other and that is how we grew together, and it give a proud feeling that I have become a part of their family. I think the best thing about their work culture is the democratic process where they allow everyone and anyone, from an intern to a Director to share inputs and tell a better story.

All actors of the show Aspirants have given such amazing performances that fans have gone gaga over them and can't get enough of these actors. We have seen thousands of tribute art on their characters.
Deepesh: Actors are being very generous, but Sandeep Bhaiya would not have been what it is today had it not been for Sunny's Performance. He has literally made it more memorable than we could imagine on paper. Same for Abhilash putting so much authenticity in SK's character and making it so adorable or Shivankit making Guri look so effortless. We could not have asked for a better team of actors. Naveen, Namita and all of them came together to read and rehearse with Appu for the show and all of them completely dedicated themselves like any of the crew does, and that's also something that makes TVF Shows special. Actors become a part of the TVF show during pre-production and that's special. We are fortunate to have actors who gave everything for this show.

Shreyansh, last question for you - Aspirants is the 7th TVF Show on TOP 250 Shows in the world on IMDb, did you expect this would happen and what more shows can we look forward to from the house of TVF?
The love that is pouring is completely unimaginable, definitely not something any of us had thought before the release of the show. TVF Aspirants is the 7th show to a secure a place in this prestigious list and in 2021 itself, TVF has added 2 shows to this list i.e. Gullak & Aspirants. There are a number of shows releasing this year including Hostel Daze S2 on Amazon Prime & Kota Factory S2 on Netflix and many more with other OTT Partners. As the announcement came in last week, the most awaited Pitchers S2 is in the making and would be releasing on Zee5 along with new seasons of other loved shows namely TVF Tripling, The Aam Aadmi Family and Humorously Yours. Engineering Girls is another show we are very proud of as it tells the story of career women in STEM fields. We are also working on new genres which we are excited about to bring to our audiences very soon. Our foray into regional sphere has been very well received by the audience and we are also partnering with content creators in Tamil, Telugu & Marathi. We have produced a brand new Marathi show where we have partnered with the Bhartiya Digital Party (BhaDiPa) led by Sarang, Anusha & Paula and that is releasing very soon. We are also about to sign a deal on our first slate of films with an OTT Platform soon.

At TVF, we want to keep telling great stories for all our partner platforms along with Brands, and the success we celebrate the most, is the success of our partners be it an OTT Platform or a Brand.