'All India Rank' director Varun Grover: ‘Stories of IITians earning Rs 1 cr..'

Updated On: 13 February, 2024 06:17 AM IST | Mumbai | Mohar Basu

Debutant director Grover says he made All India Rank to show how education system, parents and myopic idea of success pressure teenage students

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Varun Grover

Two weeks ago, a suicide note by a Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) aspirant went viral online. It was the second suicide in a month in Kota, which is known for its coaching institutes that train students for engineering entrance exams. Incidentally, the next week, the trailer of All India Rank, which marks writer-lyricist-comic Varun Grover’s directorial debut, dropped online. When we sit down with Grover, our conversation naturally begins with the pressure that our education system thrusts on 17-year-olds. Imagine a world where a little girl feels it`s easier to kill herself than go through with the JEE prep? He says, "Kids feeling pushed to harm themselves is a symptom of a much deeper issue.The whole idea that someone who is not even 18 has only two years to decide what they want to be in their lives and if they don`t they will be stuck in a tunnel that they are making through a mountain. That mindset has been there since forever. This pressure is created by a whole system. The parents, peers, teachers at school. There is a success industry validated by reports like IIT-ian getting into Google and making a salary of 1 crores. These success stories are actually triggers for other kids because it tells them either be this or be a nobody. This push to be successful in life at 16 is too much when you`ve just hit puberty and you are still figuring out your body, feelings, surroundings. When you mention that you want to study history or arts, you are seen as a lesser mortal."

The JEE forms the film’s backdrop