A nation that fears failure will never realise its potential, says Kamal Haasan

A country that fears failure will never discover its true potential, said actor and Rajya Sabha MP Kamal Haasan at Crystal Connexions Alumini Meet 2025 at VIT Chennai on Friday.

“In India failure too is often treated like a life sentence. And that fear kills more dreams that poverty will ever – I know this because I have failed publicly, painfully, privately many times. I have acted in films that flopped, directed projects that was misunderstood, spoke truths that people did not want to hear. Every success story you all admire is just a long edit of failures you never saw. The more you fail the more educated you become,” he said while delivering his address.

Citing examples of the startup ecosystem Mr.Hassan said “For every 100 ideas 90 fail in the first five years. In Silicon Valley it is seen as experienced gained…… in India it is viewed with shame. We live in a country where a failed exam can end a life…that’s not education that’s cruelty,” he said.

G. V. Selvam, Vice President of VIT shared statistics about the growth of the Chennai campus. “We started with 622 students and 45 faculty and 20 staff and the strength today is 23,000 students and 880 faculty and 360 staff. That day it was 60 acres now we have 200 acres.”

G. Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor of VIT, highlighted that not much has been spent for education in the country and requested Mr.Hasaan to discuss it in the Rajya Sabha. “GST must be withdrawn from educational institutions so that fees can be brought down,” he said.

Alumni were also given special awards under five different categories. Mahajan Sagar Bhaskar, Researcher and Assistant Professor at Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia was honoured under academic and research category. Ram Kumar R.S, Founder and Managing Director of AdSense Technologies Pvt Ltd was given an award under entrepreneurship category. Under corporate career segment, Ashwani Jha, Principal Engineer – Digital, Mott MacDonald was given an award. Vijai.M, CEO of Adrig AI Technology was honoured under young achiever category and Kalvina Rajendran, Consultant, Assistive Technology was given an award under social development category.