Anand Kumar is a teacher, mathematician, and educationalist. He is most famous for being the founder of the ‘Super 30’ program. This program provides coaching and other assistance to poor kids for the IIT-JEE entrance exam. Additionally, he is a column writer for many journals, newspapers, and magazines in India and around the world.
One of the main reasons for the popularity of the Super 30 coaching classes program is its high success rate. By the year 2016, over 365 students from the program had passed the IIT-JEE exam and got admission to the prestigious IIT universities. The Discovery Chanel has even telecast a show about this special coaching program.
An upcoming Bollywood biopic film named ‘Super 30’ is based on the life and teaching work of Anand Kumar. It stars Hrithik Roshan as the protagonist and is directed by Vikas Bahl. The film will hit the theaters on July 12, 2019.
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Early Life and Education
Kumar was born in Patna, Bihar on 1st Jan 1973. His father was employed as a clerk in Postal Office, while Jayanti Devi, his mother, was a homemaker.
Kumar did his schooling in a government school where he became interest in maths. When graduating from college he wrote some papers on Number Theory which were published in journals like Mathematical Spectrum and The Mathematical Gazette. Later, he was able to get admission into Cambridge University. However, he could not join due to the sudden passing away of his father and subsequent lack of funds for further studies. Despite looking for sponsors in major cities for his education, he could not find anyone.
Anand subsequently began helping his mother who had launched a papad selling small business. He would solve math problems during the day (sometimes traveling to Varanasi to study journals) and help his mother in the evenings. He even offered tutoring services to children to make some extra cash.
Anand Kumar – Real Photos
The founding of Super 30 educational program
In 1992, Kumar launched the Ramanujan School of Mathematics. The school had just 36 students in the first year which spiked to 500 students in the next year. A poor student who could not afford to pay the yearly teaching fees met Kumar in 2000 and asked him to offer coaching for IIT-JEE exam. This incident motivated Anand to start the Super 30 program in 2002.
Every year, the Ramanujan institute holds a competitive exam and the top 30 students then get selected for the Super 30 program. The students are from all walks of life, especially those who cannot afford to pay tuition. The program offers accommodation, tuition, and courseware to these students to help them prepare for the IIT-JEE exam. The revenue generated from the other schools founded by Anand help fund the program. No assistance is sought or taken from either the government or the private sector.
The success of the program brought fame to Anand. Since then, he has spoken about his experiences at many different prestigious universities around the world, including Stanford University.
In July 2018, the newspaper Dainik Jagran published an article which smeared the reputation of the Super 30 program. The article had statements from former students of the program who claimed that only 3 students from the program had cleared the IIT-JEE exam in 2018 and not 26 students as claimed by Anand. Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and Shatrughan Sinha spoke in favor of Kumar and described the incident as fake news. The Hindu wrote that Kumar and his coaching program were often subjected to such propaganda and smear campaigns; the paper also found the sources of the fake stories that were published in the Jagran.
Anand Kumar wife – Ritu Rashmi
The prolific tutor dated a girl called Ritu Rashmi who worked as a software engineer. The couple married in the year 2008, but the union was not easy by any stretch of imagination. In a nation mired by caste and community-oriented differences, it was tough call for the lovers. However, they didn’t give up and with some help from a police officer named Abhyanand who was associated with the Super 30 platform, they were able to convince the elders to agree to the marriage.
Ritu Rashmi is a graduate from IIT Varanasi. After marriage, she decided to give up her flourishing career and instead help her husband in running the Super 30 program. Anand has repeatedly stated that he looks up to his wife for her sacrifice. Mrunal Thakur plays the role of Ritu Rashmi in Super 30, the movie based on Anand Kumar’s life.
Super 30: The Movie
The script of Super 30 was revised over 10 times by the filmmakers in conjunction with Anand Kumar so as to ensure that the facts were right and the story is canvassed correctly. Despite the corrections, the filmmakers have described the movie as ‘based on true incidents’ and not a biopic. This is because some creative liberties have been taken by the makers of Super 30.
When Anand found that Hrithik was going to play the lead role, he was advised by many people that it was not a good idea. The actor was a Greek God and would find it difficult to portray a rustic individual. But Roshan assured Anand that he would put in a lot of hard work into accent, language, mannerisms, etc. to ensure that he perfected reality. Kumar has seen the movie’s rushes and is very happy with Roshan’s acting and the film’s general outlook.
Mrunal Thakur has been cast to play the role of Anand’s wife in the film. Sajid Nadiadwala, Reliance Entertainment, and Phantom Films are co-producers, Ajay-Atul are the music directors, and Amitabh Bhattacharya is the lyricist. Vikas Bahl, the director was fired by Phantom Films after allegations of sexual harassment against him. The studio was then disbanded. Super 30 will be the last release of the studio. Reliance Entertainment held an internal inquiry into the allegations, found it to be untrue, and reinstated Bahl as the director of the film.
Initial shooting took place at Ramnagar Fort and at Sambhar Lake Town. A set was also erected in Mumbai to show Patna. Later, filming continued at Banaras Hindu University; Super 30 was the first Bollywood film to be shot in the campus of the university. Shooting finished in September 2018.
The first poster of the film was released on Teacher’s Day (Sep 5) 2018. On 3rd June 2019, a poster with the words ‘Misaal Bano, Haqdaar Bano’ and Hrithik standing in the rain was released. The movie’s trailer was released the next day and it has garnered over 40 million views since then. The film’s release date was advanced by 2 weeks by the producers to 12th July 2019.
