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Kevin G From 'Mean Girls' Teaches You How To Get Over Failure

The Indian-origin actor lost the "role of a lifetime" in 2010.
Rajiv Surendra is a self-taught calligrapher who is much in demand.
David Cooper via Getty Images
Rajiv Surendra is a self-taught calligrapher who is much in demand.

Yo yo yo

All you sucka MC's ain't got nothin' on me

On my grades, on my lines you can't touch Kevin G

I'm a mathlete, a nerd is inferred

But forget what you heard I'm like James Bond the third

Sh-sh-shaken not stirred I'm Kevin Gnapoor

Anyone who has ever seen Mean Girls probably can't forget the iconic scene with a nerdy South Asian-looking mathlete rapping at a high school event. Kevin G, played by Canadian actor Rajiv Surendra, has a small but significant role in the popular movie that came out of nowhere in 2004 to attain cult status.

While the 28-year-old did not go on to become a star like other cast members Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams, Surendra has led a fascinating life since the movie was released. The then-16-year-old decided to prepare for the lead role in Life of Pi, relocating to Pondicherry in India where the book's protagonist grows up, studying in the same high school, learning the mannerisms of young adults there, and starting a correspondence with the book's author Yann Martel. Yet, after six years of researching what he thought would be the role of a lifetime, he lost it to newcomer Suraj Sharma.

How does one recover from that kind of 'failure'? Surendra documented his journey from then to now, describing how he moved to Munich to become a nanny, learnt to be a potter, painter, calligrapher, and chalk artist, in his memoir Elephants In My Backyard. He has drawn the cover himself.

"I really learnt that you shouldn't let the fear of failure stand in your way," he told Tech Insider recently, in a video that has since then gone viral. Watch the full interview here.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.