Meet the real hero of Super 30 - Anand Kumar

Super 30, directed by Vikas Bahl and starring Hrithik Roshan as Anand Kumar, has hit the screens on Friday. The Hrithik Roshan starrer has already garnered widespread acclaim in its pre-screenings.

But did you know about the real Anand Kumar and his association with Super 30?

The real life story

The movie Super 30 is based on the life of Anand Kumar, who revolutionised the tuition system in the heartlands with his Super 30 programme for talented but underprivilleged children who wished to crack IIT-JEE. The film, in fact, chronicles Anand Kumar's incredible life, starting at a very young age, and his battle against India's flawed and corrupt education system.

The early beginnings

Anand Kumar is gifted mathematicians in India, who has dedicated his life to coaching underprivileged students free of cost.

A brilliant student, Anand Kumar, used to regularly travel six hours by train from Patna to Varanasi, to access study materials not available in his hometown.

In 1994, at the age of 21, Anand Kumar secured admission to the prestigious University of Cambridge, but could not make it because he did not have the funds to travel to the UK. After his father's death, despite being a brilliant mathematician, Anand was compelled to sell "papad" on the streets to make ends meet.

From brilliant student to trainer

Determined that other brilliant but economically backward children like him do not face such travails, Anand Kumar initiated his Super 30 educational programme in 2002. Under the programme he picked 30 deserving but underprivileged students for the IIT-JEE, whom he would then coach free of cost every year.

By last year, 422 out of the 480 children, all economically underprivileged, and all coached free of cost by Anand Kumar in his Super 30 classes, had made it to the IITs.

Despite being flooded with offers of financial support for his programme from governments and private sector giants, Anand Kumar chose to survive only on his own meagre resources.

The support system

Anand's family also played a key role in his endeavours. His mother, Jayanti Devi, would cook for the students, and his brother, Pranav Kumar, would take care of the management.

On the eve of the film's release, Anand Kumar said: "I'm very happy with the way 'Super 30' has shaped up. The team has done an incredible job. I hope this film inspires all future generations."

The tragedy that came all way

It was just recently that Anand Kumar revealed that he is suffering from brain tumour. He opened up about his battle with acoustic neuroma, a non-cancerous tumour.

In an interview with a wire agency, Kumar said that trouble began in 2014, when he was "unable to hear" in his right ear. Tests revealed nearly 90 per cent of his hearing ability in the ear had been destroyed.

Kumar then got himself checked at Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. "They told me I had no issues with my ear. Instead a tumour had developed in the nerve that runs from ear to brain," he recalled.

It was due to his health conditions, Kumar, who is currently on medication, wanted his biopic to be completed as soon as possible.

The biopic

Kumar recalled that the film's writers requested him to give permission to start work on the project as soon as possible. "You have no idea of life and death, so I wanted this biopic to be made while I was alive," he added.

Super 30 film is currently ranked number one among the most anticipated movie of 2019 on IMDB India. The film's trailer has garnered over 45 million views on YouTube alone so far. The film also features Mrunal Thakur, Pankaj Tripathi, Amit Sadh, Nandish Singh and Aditya Srivastava, and is directed by Vikas Bahl.