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Why did Vikas Bahl break down on seeing kids at Patna’s Super 30?
Filmmaker Vikas Bahl says the mathematician, who launched the Super 30 initiative, enjoyed watching his 2014 hit. Vikas says he broke down after meeting the kids at Super 30.
Two years back, Vikas Bahl’s Queen (2014) went on to become a huge success. Now, the film has found a connection with his next movie. Vikas is currently writing the script of this untitled film, which is a biopic on the Patna-based mathematician Anand Kumar, who launched the educational initiative, Super 30.
Vikas says Anand really enjoyed watching Queen. “He loved it, and I loved his life story… I probably just got lucky,” says the director, laughing. “It just so happened that we both were trying to reach one another at the same time regarding the film,” says Vikas, who finds Anand’s story “really inspiring”.
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According to its website, this initiative “hunts for 30 meritorious talents from among the economically backward sections of the society, and shapes them for India’s most prestigious institution — the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).”
He adds, “Doing a film on this subject is a big responsibility for Madhu (Mantena; producer), Priti (Sinha; producer) and me. I almost broke down when I saw the kids [studying], and just how focused they are.”
Vikas believes that if Queen and Chillar Party (2011; he had co-directed the film) were considered inspirational films for women and children, respectively, this biopic “will be inspiring on another level”. “If you see those kids studying and what their mission in life is, where they have come from, and what they have become over time… it’s unbelievable! This story has fascinated me,” says Vikas.
READ: Film reviews should be delayed: Vikas Bahl
Although this film’s “terrain” is very different, Vikas says, at the end of the day, it is a positive story. “And if I look at his life purely as a movie, it is also extremely entertaining. If reality is stranger than fiction, then this is an example of exactly that,” he says. Vikas wants to first finish writing the film within the next couple of months, before signing an actor.
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