Physics Wallah Drama Controversy

About

Physics Wallah Drama Controversy refers to the controversial departure of various teachers from the Indian YouTube EdTech company "Physics Wallah – Alakh Pandey" (PW). The teachers Tarun Kumar, Manish Dubey, and Sarvesh Dixit left PW on account of professional differences and started their own YouTube channel "Sankalp" in March 2023. However, a video of them lashing out at accusations of bribery from their ex-colleague Sanjay Sijariya went viral on social media in late March 2023, resulting in people discussing and making memes about the issue.

Background

Physics Wallah is an education tech start-up founded by competitive prep YouTuber Alakh Pandey. The YouTube channel-turned-coaching platform raised over $100 million in 2022, having rapidly expanded over the past year.^[1]

Between March 21st and March 23rd, 2023, various teachers affiliated with Physics Wallah posted videos^[2][3] to the new YouTube channel "Sankalp" explaining their reasons for exiting the start-up and creating their own channel. The videos gathered over 1 million views each (seen below).

Developments

On March 23rd, 2023, YouTuber^[4] and Physics Wallah teacher Pankaj Sijariya posted a video to his personal YouTube channel alleging that three Physics Wallah teachers took a bribe from a rival company to leave the platform. The video gathered over 1.4 million videos in nearly a week (seen below).

On March 24th, 2023, former Physics Wallah teachers Tarun sir, M.D. sir and Sarvesh sir posted an explosive video defending themselves against Sijariya's accusations of bribery to their YouTube channel Sankalp^[5]. At the 4:54 timestamp, the teachers pull up Whatsapp chat records and deliver an emotional defense, with Tarun sir being reduced to tears. The video gathered over 2.8 million views in over five days (seen below).

The video was reposted to Twitter^[6][7] by various users on March 25th, 2023, with Twitter^[8] user @dudeitsokay posting a meme about how MBA Chaiwala acted as a bad omen for Alakh Pandey, the founder of Physics Wallah, after being photographed with him at his wedding (seen below, left). The post gathered over 2,000 likes in four days. On March 26th, Twitter^[9] user @darkskinnmanson posted a meme about the issue, gathering over 100 likes in three days (seen below, right).

Also on March 25th, 2023, Twitter^[10] user @thambivandelay posted about the issue as well, saying:

"indian edtech is so funny. go down the youtube rabbit hole you will find videos like:
- physicwallah final warning to aman bhaiya
- allen challenge to physicswallah
- allen rajesh sir shayari to haters
- aman bhaiya final reply to pw
- pw scammed apni kaksha"

The tweet gathered over 300 likes in over four days (seen below).

Search Interest

External References