Super 30 has been in news for a variety of reasons. Since its trailer launch, the Hrithik Roshan starrer has courted controversy mostly for cultural appropriation and Vikas Bahl getting credits for the film as director.
The film tells the story of a genius mathematician, Anand Kumar and his educational program Super 30. Hrithik who plays the titular role in the film initiates the program for the underprivileged section of the society and trains aspiring students from the rural heartland to study and crack the IIT-JEE exam.
Recently, a Latin American correspondent for Canada-based newspaper The Globe and Mail, Stephanie Nolen, shared a post on social media that revealed what inspired the story of Super 30.
In a post that Nolen posted on Twitter, she said she had done a story on a school in Bihar in 2011 that inspired a Vancouver-based doctor to get in touch with the head teacher and write a book on that.
That book eventually inspired the Bollywood film, Super 30, though a “liiiiitle glammed up” she added.
Stephanie also shared a link to her 2011 story from the publication that spoke of how the Super 30 program had been running successfully for over the last eight years.
Almost every year, the program made headlines for managing to get all 30 students admitted to the IIT’s. It also spoke of the novelty value of a program as such that in fact showed glaring loopholes in the “growing crisis in Indian education.”
In fact, Anand Kumar who never received formal education himself even won a place at the Cambridge University in 1994. However, after his father’s sudden death, he became the sole supporter of the family, selling “papads” on the streets that his mother made to survive.
It was much later that he started the Super 30 program. For teaching kids at low prices, he received death threats and had two full-time bodyguards assigned to him by the Bihar police.
But, Kumar’s unwavering dedication for his students and upliftment of those who could not afford to dream big never stopped him.
Super 30 brings a true story to the screen. Produced under Reliance Entertainment, the film is slated to release on 12th July 2019.
So this is fun: a story I wrote from Bihar in 2011 about an amazing school inspired a Vancouver doctor to get in touch with the head teacher, which led him to write a book, which is now a Bollywood film premiering next month (maybe a liiiiitle glammed up)https://t.co/RUti0kmQJo
— Stephanie Nolen (@snolen) June 6, 2019