Jitendra Kumar – Hindi actor best known for comedy sketches of ‘The Viral Fever’

Jitendra Kumar is an Indian actor and standup comedian, best known for his roles in comedy sketches of The Viral Fever. Many of his roles became instant hits. Among all roles he portrayed for TVF videos, a parody version of famous politician Arvind Kejriwal is most popular. In 2019 he marked his big screen debut with Gone Kesh playing the male lead and bagged Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, to play the lead role aside Ayushmann Khurrana. The movie is about homosexuality and same-sex marriage, where Jitendra plays Khurrana’s love interest.

Jitendra Kumar hails from Khairthal in Alwar, Rajasthan. As a child he practised mimicry. While studying engineering at IIT Kharagpur, he served as the governor of the Hindi Technology Dramatics Society, and did many stage plays. He was spotted by Biswapati Sarkar, who invited him to join The Viral Fever (TVF) in 2012. The core team was a group of IITians from IIT Kharagpur, who quit their engineering jobs to start something related to web content, and TVF later got recognized as the first Indian web based series with fresh content.

He was a part of TVF video ‘Munna Jazbaati: The Q-tiya intern’ in 2013, which went viral. It was his debut series. Later he became a part of several TVF videos including the super hit, TVF Bachelor’s series, which earned him immense popularity. It was followed by India’s first Black & White web series, Kota Factory, where he played the pivot role of Jeetu Bhaiya, which was an instant hit. He starred in the lead in Tech Conversation with Dad.

Jitendra Kumar – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. During his childhood days, he used to mimic Bollywood actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Nana Patekar etc, both the voice and body language. Later during his college days, he used to create and perform parody to entertain hostel mates.

2. He is an IITian who completed Civil Engineering from IIT Kharagpur.

3. He did his schooling from a Hindi medium school. So during his college days at IIT, he struggled with English, and later found space in Hindi drama club at college, where he polished his talents.

4. During his college days, because of his poor English skills, he was ragged by seniors and asked to read a few lines from the drama film, The Scent of a Woman (1992), which he took as challenge. Though he failed in English diction, he impressed them with his positive approach, and later they recommended him to Hindi drama club.

5. He won bronze medal in Hindi elocution during his IIT days.

6. After completing his engineering, he worked in a company for a brief period of 8 months. He was highly dissatisfied with the choice of his career, and later quit job to join TVF. His college senior at IIT Biswapati Sarkar invited him to join TVF, which he accepted. They also did a few plays together during initial days, before TVF became an instant hit.

7. Jeetu Bhaiya in Kota Factory, the frustrated corporate employee Jitendra Maheshwari in TVF Pitchers, Confused bridegroom Gittu in Permanent Roommates etc are some of his famous roles.

8. In 2018 he received best performer in comic role award at Talentrack Digital Content Awards.

9. He played an uncredited role of a taxi driver in 2008 Bollywood thriller, A Wednesday.

10. Painting and photography are his hobbies. He also loves playing guitar. Paper wall art is his passion.