TVF Pitchers
TVF Pitchers is a web series created by The Viral Fever (TVF) and developed by Arunabh Kumar. The first season consists of five episodes and premiered online on The Viral Fever's content portal TVFPlay[2] on 3 June 2015. A week later, on 10 June, it premiered on YouTube. The season finale premiered on TVFPlay on 30 August 2015. It follows four friends, Naveen, Jitu, Yogi and Mandal, who quit their jobs in order to develop their own start-up company.[3][4] The show was highly appreciated and has since developed a cult status.
| TVF Pitchers | |
|---|---|
 Established 2015 | |
| Genre | Comedy-drama |
| Created by | Arunabh Kumar |
| Developed by | Arunabh Kumar |
| Written by | Biswapati Sarkar |
| Story by | Arunabh Kumar |
| Directed by | Amit Golani |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Vaibhav Bundhoo |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 5 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Arun Kumar |
| Producer | The Viral Fever Media Labs |
| Cinematography | Vaibhav Bundhoo |
| Editor | Prashant Machhar |
| Running time | 30–57 minutes |
| Production company | The Viral Fever Media Labs [1] |
| Distributor | The Viral Fever |
| Release | |
| Original network | TVF Play |
| Original release | June 5 – August 30, 2015 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Premise
Four friends — Naveen Bansal, Jitendra "Jitu" Maheshwari, Yogendra "Yogi" Kumar and Saurabh Mandal — enter the business world by launching their own start-up company. Naveen becomes angry for not getting a project from the company in which he works, gets drunk and resigns. He faces a dilemma when he is offered a position in a branch office located in Beijing. He leaves for the airport but upon reaching there he realizes that he is not destined for routine jobs. At the same time, he receives news of his "B-Plan" reaching the final of the NASSCOM start-up conclave. This sets off a chain of events in which the four rediscover what they really want in life, and face challenges in getting their start-up idea off the ground.
After the release of the first trailer, the show's premise was compared to that of the American TV show Silicon Valley. However, when the pilot premiered, viewers realized this was not the case. Arunabh Kumar, founder and CEO of The Viral Fever, told The Huffington Post that if there's an American TV show that did inspire Pitchers – not in content but in spirit – it is the HBO drama Entourage about a young Hollywood star on the rise.
Cast
- Naveen Kasturia as Naveen Bansal, the one who has the start-up idea and earlier working as Executive regional manager at MOKART (5 episodes)
- Jitendra Kumar as Jitendra "Jitu" Maheshwari, who was working at Infocrat technologies company as a senior developer (5 episodes)
- Arunabh Kumar as Yogendra Kumar "Yogi" Pandey, who was probably operational incharge at EliteCore technologies (5 episodes)
- Abhay Mahajan as Saurabh Mandal, who was a senior consultant marketing head at a company and also an MBA graduate (5 episodes)
- Aakanksha Thakur as Saumya Maheshwari, wife of Jitu (5 episodes)
- Maanvi Gagroo as Shreya, Naveen's girlfriend (4 episodes)
- Jaimini Pathak as Rajat Khanna, the CEO of MOKART (2 episodes)
- Rajesh Sharma as Gary Bhujiawala (2 episodes)
- Biswapati Sarkar as Puneet (2 episodes)
- Sunil Sinha as Jitu's Father (2 episode)
- Sameer Saxena as Ankit Bhardwaj (1 episode)
- Abhishek Banerjee as Bhati
Episodes
There are only five episodes in one season and no other season has been produced so far. The episodes were dubbed in Tamil on October 6, 2017. The last episode was released on 3 November 2017 on the TVF play app and also on TVF Machi, which is TVF's official Tamil YouTube channel.
| No. in
Season |
No. in
Episode |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Release date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Tu Beer Hai" (HINDI).and "Nee oru beer machi..."(TAMIL)" | Amit Golani | Biswapati Sarkar | 3 June 2015 | S01E01 |
| Naveen is upset with his company for not letting him lead a project for which he'd worked really hard. His mentor Bhati asks him a very fundamental question: "What are you?" Naveen and his friends discover the answer to the question in different ways (in TAMIL on 6 October 2017). | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | "And Then There Were Four"(HINDI) .and "Naangu killadigal"(TAMIL)" | Amit Golani | Biswapati Sarkar | 17 June 2015 | S01E02 |
| While the startup is the idea of the three friends – Naveen, Jitu and Yogi – Naveen's roommate and IIM graduate Saurabh Mandal wants to join, and needs to convince the trio that they need him. TAMIL version on 13 October 2017 | ||||||
| 1 | 3 | "The Jury Room"(HINDI). And "Naveen vazhi thani vazhi " (TAMIL)" | Amit Golani | Biswapati Sarkar | 20 July 2015 | S01E03 |
| With all four members on board, the guys look for investors and are overwhelmed by the plethora of start-ups. Also, Jitu needs to convince his father to allow him to join the start-up. TAMIL version on 20 October 2017. | ||||||
| 1 | 4 | "Bulb Jalega Boss"(HINDI). And "Bulb yeriyum boss"(TAMIL)" | Amit Golani | Biswapati Sarkar | 1 August 2015 | S01E04 |
| Continuing from the previous episode, Naveen, Mandal and Yogi determine to succeed at the event under any circumstances, while Jitu has his own agenda to take care of at home. The events unfold parallel to each other. TAMIL version on 27 October 2017. | ||||||
| 1 | 5 | "Where Magic Happens"( HINDI). And "Adhisayam nadanthathu " (TAMIL)" | Amit Golani | Biswapati Sarkar | 30 August 2015 | S01E05 |
| The gang is one step away from their seed fund, but one innocent mistake might take it all away. Naveen's love life is also tested. TAMIL version on 3 November 2017. | ||||||
Reception
TVF Pitchers has been well received by the internet audience.[5] The first episode has more than 7.7 million views and 251k views for TAMIL version [6] The series, hosted on TVF's official YouTube channel, has gathered over 1 million views for each episode.
References
- "TVF Pitchers (2015 TV Mini-Series)". IMDB.
- "TVFPlay". TVFPlay. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
- "TVF Pitchers Is The Latest Experiment By The Viral Fever Guys And We Think It's Rather Cool!". MissMalini. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- "The Viral Fever's New Web Series is About India's Frenzied Start-Up Scene". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
- "TVF Pitchers-Best Web Series in Hindi". CelebsWhoop.com. 23 April 2020.
- TVF Pitchers S01E01 - 'Tu Beer Hai'. Youtube. Retrieved 31 January 2018.