Pratik Handore
‘Kota Factory,’ created by Saurabh Khanna and Arunabh Kumar, is one of the most popular Indian web shows. The teen drama revolves around a group of students preparing to crack the IIT entrance exams. For this purpose, they move to the town of Kota, which is known to have the best IIT coaching institutes in the country. The series showcases the rigors of the life of an IIT aspirant.
It also highlights friendship and the bond between students and teachers. While all these aspects contribute to its popularity, the show’s emotional narrative is portrayed through a monochromatic color scheme making it India’s first black and white web show. If you are wondering why the series is almost entirely in black and white, here’s everything you need to know!
Why is Kota Factory in Black and White?
While ‘Kota Factory’ episodes are primarily black and white, the series isn’t filmed that way. The show’s first season was filmed in color, but it was later converted to monochrome during post-production. While there is no specific reason behind this decision, it seems like it is a largely creative choice from the show’s makers.
The black and white color scheme is meant to convey the dull nature of the lives of students in Kota. These students leave behind their families and friends around the tender age of 16. Their lives in Kota mostly revolve around studying with little to no entertainment.
Another reasoning behind this could be to elicit the feel of the metaphorical factory that the show’s title alludes to. Factories are mostly black and white and hence the color scheme. Black and white colors can also be seen as a motif for the result-oriented approach of the institutes as the students feel their lives are defined by their success (white) or failure (black) to make it into IIT.
Whatever the reason might be, it is clear that the monochromatic scheme is one of the show’s strengths. It allows the humor to undercut the seriousness of the subject matter, further highlighting how much is at stake for these students. The little moments of humor provide much-needed reprieve in the students’ lives, and their importance is amplified with the black and white color scheme.
Does Kota Factory Have Any Color Scenes?
Most of the scenes in episodes of ‘Kota Factory’ are in black and white, barring a few key sequences. The opening scenes of the show are in color. In these scenes, the protagonist arrives in Kota and adjusts to his new life. This symbolizes the aforementioned dull nature of student life in the city as the students leave behind their colorful world for a monotonous life that revolves around studying. Similarly, the final moments of season 1 are in color as the protagonist speaks about life after the rigorous hard work in the coaching institute. The minimal use of color provides credence to most of the interpretations of the show’s black and white color scheme mentioned above.
Read More: Is Kota Factory Based on a True Story?
