Decoding Jitendra Kumar’s “Jeetu Bhaiyya” Moniker

Jitendra Kumar in a still from a video. (courtesy: YouTube)

Kota Factory Season 3is set to premiere on June 20. On Tuesday, Netflix India dropped the trailer on YouTube. In the nearly 3-minute video, Jitendra Kumar, who plays the role of teacher Jeetu bhaiya in the show, answers the million-dollar question: “Why do his students call him Bhaiya and not sir?” When a woman asks him the question, Jeetu replies, “Ma’am kya hai kota mein bacho ke loye sab kuch hota hai. Par yeh log sirf JEE aspirants nahi hai. Hum log bhul jate hai ki yeh log 15-16 saal ke bache hai. Duniya bhar ke infatuations hai, insecurities hai. [Ma’am, in Kota, everything revolves around the students. But they are not just JEE aspirants. We forget that they are 15-16-year-old kids. They have all sorts of infatuations and insecurities.]

Jeetu bhaiya continues, “Teacher ne daant diya to demotivate ho jaate hai. Dost ne kuch keh diya to inko bura lag jata hai. Har cheez seriously lete hai yeh log. Inki responsibility bahut badi cheez hai. Jeetu sir nahi le payenge. [If a teacher scolds them, they get demotivated. If a friend says something, it hurts them. They take everything seriously. Their responsibility is a huge matter. Jeetu sir cannot handle that.]”

In the trailer, we also get a glimpse of the cast – Urvi Singh, Revathi Pillai, Ahsaas Channa, Mayur More, Ranjan Raj, and Alam Khan. All of them play the role of students, who travelled all the way to Kota to prepare for competitive exams.

We are also introduced to a new chemistry teacher, played by Tillotama Shome, talking about the harsh reality of the institutions in Kota. She says, “Aapka pta to hai Kota factory ban chuka hai. Jaha pehle dheere-dheere taraash ke bacho ko kabil banaya jaata tha, vaha ab mass production lag gayi hai. Alag-alag factory me race lagi hui. [You know, Kota has turned into a factory. Where earlier children were gradually and meticulously shaped to become capable, now mass production is happening. Different factories are racing against each other.]”

Directed by Raghav Subbu, Kota Factory is a show that revolves around students who travel to Kota to clear competitive exams. The first season was released in April 2019, followed by the second in September 2021. The series has been backed by TVF Productions.