Anand Kumar is one of the finest mathematicians in the country. He shot into prominence with Super-30, a prestigious Indian educational program started in Patna as a part of ‘Ramanujan School of Mathematics.’ It was founded by the mathematician Anand Kumar himself in the year 2002.
The program’s objective to select 30 aspirants each passing year from economically backward sections of the society and trains them for the JEE, which is an entrance exam for the Indian Institute of Information Technology. Students those who can’t afford IIT coaching received free study materials and also accommodation for a year completely free of cost.
Anand Kumar’s Mother, identified as Jayanti Devi came forward to provide food for the students while Anand and other teachers tutored them. During the 1st year of the coaching, 18 out of 30 students successfully cracked IIT under the astute teaching traits of Anand Kumar. His name slowly started to spread all across the country.
In the following year, the application numbers went skyrocketing owing to the popularity of the program. So, a written examination was organised in a bid to select 30 students. In the year 2004, 22 out of 30 students qualified for IIT-JEE enhancing the popularity of the program which drew more attention to obtain even more applications.
In the 2005 batch, 26 out of 30 students cleared the entrance exam while 28 achieved the IIT dream in 2006. Then IIT changed the examination pattern. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar congratulated the students with a crunchy cash prize of Rupees 50,000 each. The next year, 28 more students achieved the IIT dream and finally in 2008, for the first time, all of the Super 30 created history by clearing the IIT JEE, achieving 100% success rate.
The former aspirants who used to get training from Anand Kumar also joined as teachers for the Super 30 program and in the year 2009, all the 30 students again managed to make the cut in IIT JEE. In 2017, all the aspirants again cleared the IIT-JEE Advanced 2017. In the following year, 26 students of ‘Super 30’ touched the pinnacle of success in IIT-JEE Advanced 2018.
Anand Kumar’s success story reached out to all snippets of India. Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan who was inspired by the real-life story of Anand Kumar decided to do a first-ever Biopic ‘Super-30’ and the trailer has been released.
A man hailing from a small town has become an inspirational hero and in fact, he thoroughly deserves a lot of love and respect but his journey wasn’t that easy.
Besides facing all the financial problems, he has faced terrible experience of the mafia in Patna, Bihar and it’s indeed shocking.
In an interview with IndiaTimes, Anand Kumar revealed how his life is in more danger soon after the film is being made on him. He said, “Even earlier I have been attacked by the mafia, my non-teaching staff and I was attacked by the goons, we even faced the bullets, then my non teaching faculty was attacked by a knife on his stomach at Patna medical college, so my fight with mafia has been going on till 15 years. I have two bodyguards for my safety for 15 years, otherwise I will be killed anytime, that’s the state, and now the threat has increased after the film on me is being made”.
He also dismissed the allegation on him of taking donations from the kids, he said, “I don’t know this man who is putting this false allegation on me, that I looted him, my story is untrue, till date I haven’t taken one rupee of the donation from the government too, right from Ambani, Mahindra to PM Narendra Modi have asked me to take money from them for my class but I haven’t taken a single penny, till date I run my house on the tuition fees of Super 30, despite all this I don’t know from where these allegations are on me and claiming they will stop the film, I am like what is happening? I am trapped now, there is news on papers everywhere ki Anand Kumar phas gaye? Muje laga film banana bada menga saudaa hogaya bhai. Better there would be no film made on me, even my wife got scared, but still, we bared and we were like no problem, let the film release people will know the truth.”
Anand Kumar is pretty confident that Super 30 will definitely bring a massive change in everyone’s life. “ People are looking at this film with a lot of expectations I feel and even I feel this film will definitely be good because the message in this film is that every poor child who will work hard and study hard will excel, this film will obviously raise a hope in every kid. Second thing is the elite class kids will also feel that these poor kids who don’t have the facility are still studying and doing so good so even we can, and the third thing is every teacher, every youth will feel that in society we have to survive, your time will come, you just have to be patient, it’s an entertaining film along with a good message, this film in total will bring a lot of positivity.”
When enquired about Super 30 director Vikas Bhal who was alleged in the MeToo movement, he said, “Vikas ji had completed the film by that time as per my knowledge, there was little bit of editing remaining, I feel when Vikas ji got clean chit and all the allegations against him is proven wrong, so now nobody should point finger at him, he is a nice and hardworking man.”
Anand is blissfully pleased as punch that his biopic is being made on him and he also feels such simple stories should be encouraged more, “ I really like a lot of attention and if someone talks bad I feel bad so that’s a natural feeling, my father always used to say when you are in good time help people and when you are in bad time be patient. And I feel the film should be made on simple stories, like me, or even our Manji The Mountain man, such stories inspire people”.
Last but not the least when he was asked about how does he feel this biopic will bring any kind of change in an individual’s life, he confidently said, “In our time we used to see Amitabh Bachchan wearing those bell bottom pants and we all copied, later we saw other heroes hairstyle being copied, so if the film is good, people will obviously get inspired by it and hope the audiences get connected with Super 30 too.”