Popular educator and Physics Gyaan founder Mukesh Nayak issued a public appeal to Alakh Pandey, the billionaire founder of edtech unicorn Physics Wallah, requesting an immediate end to what he described as aggressive teacher poaching in Maharashtra.
Nayak alleged that recruitment teams from the Noida-based education giant are pressuring local faculty members to abandon their current commitments just as critical entrance exam preparation enters its peak season.
The appeal, shared via a video addressed directly to Pandey, highlights a growing friction between India’s massive edtech corporations and independent regional educators who have long dominated the state’s local coaching ecosystem.
The controversy centres on the sudden departure of Satyam Bhandari, a prominent physics faculty member who had been working with Nayak for over three years.
Nayak stated that Bhandari was an offline teacher whom he had mentored for the digital space, only for Physics Wallah’s Maharashtra division to allegedly recruit him using high-pressure tactics and lucrative financial offers. This transition occurred right before the launch of a crucial crash course, leaving thousands of enrolled students in a state of uncertainty.
He emphasized that while he respects the work Alakh Pandey has done for the country’s education sector, the current methods used by his recruitment teams are damaging the local teaching community.
He noted that he had previously encouraged his own students to use Physics Wallah resources for national exams like JEE and NEET, showing a spirit of collaboration that he now feels is being exploited.
Nayak further explained that while he continued to pay his staff even during lean periods, the edtech giant’s decision to pull teachers away during the high-revenue “crash course” season threatens the financial viability of smaller independent channels.
The veteran teacher, who operates the ‘Physics Gyaan Mukesh Nayak’ channel, which has built a significant following among MHT-CET (Maharashtra Health and Technical Common Entrance Test) aspirants, called upon other prominent Maharashtra educators to join his protest.
He tagged well-known figures in the local creator economy, including mathematics educator Dinesh Kumar and science teacher Prashant Tiwari, warning that such corporate expansion tactics could eventually affect every independent creator in the state.
Physics Wallah (PW), founded by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, has grown from a single YouTube channel into a multi-billion-dollar startup known for its affordable coaching and rapid expansion into offline centres across India.
While the company has faced similar “teacher poaching” allegations in the past from other major players like Allen Career Institute and Adda247, this latest incident marks a rare public confrontation between the unicorn and the grassroots educational creators of Maharashtra.
