12th Fail
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
12th Fail tells the true story of Manoj Kumar Sharma, a young man from a poor village family who sets out to join the Indian police service. His path runs through the UPSC examination, the notoriously competitive test that draws millions of candidates, and he must keep going after academic failure and repeated setbacks, choosing to begin his studies again rather than accept the life his circumstances seem to allow.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra directed and produced the film and wrote the screenplay with Jaskunwar Kohli. It is his first directorial credit since Parinda in 1989. Vikrant Massey plays Manoj Kumar Sharma, with Medha Shankr as Shraddha Joshi, Anant Joshi as Pritam Pandey, Anshumaan Pushkar as Gaurinandan, Priyanshu Chatterjee as Dushyant Singh and Geeta Agrawal Sharma as Pushpa Sharma; the credited cast numbers 25. Made for about 2 million USD, the film has drawn an 8.7 rating on IMDb from roughly 169,000 votes, while on TMDB it holds 7.9 from around 273 votes. A critics' rating of 6.8 from 11 reviews sits below the much larger audience score, and the gap suggests viewers responded to the film more strongly than reviewers did.
What's left behind the scenes
- Vikrant was not made up – to look like a rural resident, the actor spent a lot of time in the village and sunbathed every day.
- The film features the building of the Civil Service Commission of the Union (a constitutional body established by the government to conduct examinations for admission to public service, including administrative, police, and diplomatic positions).
- The film is based on a true story.
- Originally, Rajkumar Hirani was supposed to direct the film, however, while participating in the scriptwriting, Vidhu Vinod Chopra became so attached to the characters of this story that he decided to direct the film himself. There were some doubts, because Chopra had never shot anything like this before, but when he saw Vikrant Massey's screen test, all doubts disappeared, and he confirmed his decision.
- The casting process for the project was not easy. Actors over the age of 35 were needed for the roles of all the main characters. Manoy was the only character for whom only one actor was tried. Vikrant Massey played him.
- The script was rewritten and changed over 200 times over 3 years.
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