ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the portrayal of success in Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone and Rajkumar Hirani’s movie 3 Idiots, which is loosely based on the book. The texts highlight the pressure that young people face within the narrow definition of success in the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). The chapter argues that the young people who made it into IIT are already success stories in many ways, but the blind pursuance of academic success places excessive strain on children, leads to young lives being destroyed, and underscores the necessity for change.
