The third season of Kota Factory follows Vaibhav and his friends through their final year of exam preparation while Jeetu deals with the loss of a student. The third season is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
After one of Jeetu’s students takes her own life, Jeetu struggles to cope. He stops showing up to work and avoids everyone’s calls.
Eventually, he pulls himself together when a friend’s call reminds him that he is responsible for several other students and for repaying his debts.
Jeetu goes back to teaching his students, but he is not the same. As he is emotionally vulnerable, he starts therapy.
He continues helping Vaibhav and his friends whenever they need his help, advising them to draw inspiration from others’ success instead of being jealous.
Believing that he has recovered, Jeetu stops therapy. He then appears on a podcast and shares his views on success, failure, and exam preparation.
When Meena faces financial problems and refuses help from his friends, Uday helps him find a part-time tutoring job. This affects Meena’s studies, leading to Jeetu reprimanding him.
Jeetu teaches Meena that there is no shame in accepting help when needed and lends him money so that he can quit his part-time job and focus on his studies.
The interaction makes Gagan believe that Jeetu gets overly involved in his students’ lives, which is not the only topic the two teachers disagree on.
Gagan suggests that they should have separate classes for their best students, as they will be the ones getting high ranks, which are needed to promote their institute.
However, Jeetu refuses to differentiate between his students and lashes out at Gagan. This confrontation makes Jeetu realize that he has not fully recovered, and he starts therapy again.
Meanwhile, Vaibhav and Vartika decide not to study together, as Vaibhav unintentionally makes her feel inferior whenever he teaches her.
Vaibhav and Meena appear for a mock test series to judge their progress. Initially, they compete amongst themselves.
Later, they get worried when they realize that they have to compete with several other students. Jeetu manages to ease their minds and steer them in the right direction.
He feels good about helping his students, but this does not last long, as he finds out that some of his students have been taking advantage of his kindness.
While Jeetu manages to make amends with Gagan, he struggles to detach himself from his students’ lives, which is what his therapist has advised him to do.
The therapist believes that Jeetu is so attached to his students that their problems affect him too, and he needs to detach for a while to recover fully.
At the same time, the education minister hears the podcast Jeetu appeared on. Impressed by his views, he invites Jeetu to meet him.
He offers him a post on a committee that will be drafting a new educational policy for students preparing for competitive exams.
While Jeetu wishes to work for the benefit of students, he refuses the post, as it is a full-time job and would require him to move to Jaipur.
Soon after, Uday, after getting drunk with a friend, gets into an accident, leading to his parents’ decision to take him back home.
On his students’ insistence, Jeetu tries to talk to Uday’s parents, only for Uday’s mother to accuse Jeetu of not taking care of Uday.
Jeetu, who has been trying to help his students despite his own struggles, loses his cool and snaps at her. It is Pooja who then convinces Uday’s mother to let him stay in Kota and take his exams.
Uday apologizes to his parents and starts studying earnestly. As the date of their JEE exams approaches, Vaibhav and his friends give it their all to prepare.
Ending explained:
Jeetu and Pooja’s decisions
Jeetu follows his therapist’s advice and tries to take a step back from his students’ problems, but doing so bothers him because he does not like being a detached teacher.
During this time, Gagan and Pooja step up to help the students. Like Jeetu, Pooja is also an understanding and caring teacher.
She does not want to stay in Kota for long because she dislikes how teaching institutes have turned into factories that only care about students’ ranks.
However, after talking to her father, she realizes that she cannot change the environment of the city, but she can prepare herself for it and help the students.
Pooja then decides to stay in Kota and continue teaching at AIMERS. On the other hand, Jeetu accepts the post offered to him by the education minister.
Jeetu no longer thinks he can make a positive impact on the lives of his students through teaching, so he decides to do it through policy-making.
Jeetu will move to Jaipur, leaving the management of his institute to Bablu and the students to Gagan and Pooja, a decision that disappoints everyone.
The day of the exam
Vaibhav and his friends take the JEE MAINS, the exam for entrance into the IIT, and they all pass, allowing them to appear for the final entrance exam, JEE Advanced.
Meanwhile, Shivangi takes the NEET exam, after which she says a tearful goodbye to her friends and returns home.
Vaibhav and his friends continue studying hard for their final exam. On exam day, everyone except Vaibhav reaches the exam center on time.
Jeetu convinces the guard to keep the gate open for a few extra minutes as he and the other teachers anxiously wait for Vaibhav.
Vaibhav accidentally goes to the wrong address, but with the help of a Samaritan, he reaches the exam center just a few minutes before the exam starts.
After the exam, Vaibhav and his friends’ relief and happiness are short-lived when they learn that Jeetu is moving to Jaipur.
Despite AIMERS performing well, which would enable Jeetu to repay his friend’s loan, Jeetu remains firm in his decision to leave.
The end and the beginning
Finally, the results come out. Shivangi’s results were released earlier, and she had passed. Now, the others will find out whether they have also passed.
While Vartika, Meena, and Meenal get through, Vaibhav and Uday do not. The result does not upset Uday much, but it crushes Vaibhav, who had worked extremely hard.
Vaibhav’s friends are not the only ones who stay by his side to comfort him; Jeetu also comes to console him.
Vaibhav considers giving up, believing that he will never be able to crack the exam. Jeetu does not push him to keep trying, as he thinks that the final decision should be Vaibhav’s.
Jeetu then leaves Kota, with goodbyes and gifts from his colleagues and students, including Meena and Uday, who also prepare to return home.
Vaibhav is the only one not present there. He has decided not to give up and will take the exam again next year.
This time, Vaibhav enrolls at AIMERS, even though Jeetu will not be there anymore. While leaving the city, Jeetu briefly sees Vaibhav before their paths diverge.