Kunal Kapoor, who plays Indra Dev in Ramayana, says one of the biggest things holding India back is ‘our fear of failure’

Kunal Kapoor feels one cannot build a great country if its people are terrified of getting things wrong. The actor will be seen in Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana.

Actor Kunal Kapoor is gearing up for the release of Ramayana, where he plays Indra Dev. The actor takes to his X account to often share candid thoughts and opinions on a variety of topics. He talks about the films he liked and the latest events in the country and interacts with users on the platform. On Thursday, the actor shared a long note about how one of the biggest things that is holding India back is the fear of failure.

Kunal Kapoor spoke about the need to take risks and how one must not be afraid to fail.

Kunal speaks on the shame attached to failure

In his note, Kunal shared, “I think one of the biggest things holding India back is our fear of failure. We’re taught to fear it from the time we’re young. Students are pushed to breaking point because failing an exam feels like the end of the world. We stay in marriages everyone knows aren’t working because leaving feels like failure. People stay in jobs they hate because they’re terrified they won’t find another one. We’ve built a society where the shame of failing often feels worse than the cost of staying stuck.”

The actor then went on to add how this is a generational issue and cannot be cured so easily. He wrote, “And to be fair to us, it comes from generations of scarcity. Too many people, too few opportunities. When survival is the priority, taking risks feels like a luxury. But you cannot build a great country if its people are terrified of getting things wrong. We don’t just need more ambition. We need to become a country where failure isn’t a life sentence. And maybe that’s starts small, with how we react to our kids or people around us, when they fail.”

Kunal did not specifically point out any particular project or name anyone to share why he spoke about failure. When a fan commented, “Spoken like a true king, Lord Indra,” the actor acknowledged the comment with folded hands emoticons.

About Ramayana

Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, the film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita, and Yash as Ravana. The ensemble cast also includes Lara Dutta, Sunny Deol, Ravi Dubey, Sheeba Chaddha, and Arun Govil in key roles. The film is slated for a two-part release, with the first part hitting cinemas on Diwali 2026 and the second in 2027.

Earlier in an interview with News18, Kunal had spoken the large scale on which the film is made and said, “This is a very important film in our cultural history. It’s a really important part of our cultural ethos. I think it’s important that we have filmmakers and teams who can give it the kind of scale it needs. This is mounted at a scale that we’ve never seen before.”