Why Kota kills? “WHY KOTA KILLS? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MENTAL ILLNESS ALSO THROUGH SELECT BOLLYWOOD FILMS

  • Unique Paper ID: 173338
  • PageNo: 51-59
  • Abstract:
  • The news headline in Times of India, (13th august, 2023) read “Don’t put pressure on kids: CM to parents, expressing concern over the suicides ending their lives in Kota in the past eight months was a “matter of grave concern for us.”, after the Rajasthan CM received news of around 20 suicides by Kota Coaching institute, which over the years has gained image of a dreamland that attracts JEE and Medical aspirants. There is a heart-wrenching moment in the 2009 blockbuster Movie 3 Idiots, when Joy Lobo, a final-year student at the engineering institute, hangs himself because he is late in completing his project and the principal tells him flatly that he will fail to graduate as a result he writes, “I quit” and chooses death. Mention of Taare Zameeen par (2007) has to be included as this film had gained immense attention and popularity because of this path-breaking issue on Mental Health; that showcases Ishaan, a child who shows reluctance when it comes to going to school and studying. In another film Chichore (2019), a tragic incident which happens with Anirudh’s son who attempts suicide but gets saved, it takes him to take a trip down memory lane and reminisce his college days along with his friends, who were labelled as losers. In yet another current web series called Adhura, a 2023 release, a student at a Boarding school at Ooty, is abused for being a homosexual, turns a vampire in order to take revenge. The paper undertakes mental illness of children and adolescents, be it psychiatric disorders as evinced in the film 3 Idiots, Taare Zameeen Par or Chichore, when children are put under stress, as evidenced in Kota institute of students developing suicidal tendencies over failure or an adolescent in Adhura who because of being a homosexual, not only gets humiliated, rejected but given unnatural death, it results in his demonic form; the film addresses Adolescent sexual issues. It is well recognized that many psychiatric disorders are strongly influenced by cultural and social factors, as endorsed by Foucault in Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1961/1965) ‘There is rich evidence to suggest that urbanization, unemployment, overcrowding, lack of green spaces and other social determinants can contribute to psychiatric disorders. In addition, in many instances, it is the culture which determines what is normal/abnormal or deviant thereby creating disorders based on behaviors which are approved by cultures. This has been eloquently highlighted by Foucault who describes the development of a Western idea of madness. The paper will, on the whole examine how global inequality contributes to stifling the growth of markets and of capitalism, when they expand markets to sell homogenous global products targeting young and wealthy, as well as young consumers, in return making adolescents’ part of a dissatisfied, discontented generation, constantly competing, and developing depression.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{173338,
        author = {Dr. Prerana SInha},
        title = {Why Kota kills?  “WHY KOTA KILLS? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MENTAL ILLNESS ALSO THROUGH SELECT BOLLYWOOD FILMS},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {11},
        number = {10},
        pages = {51-59},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=173338},
        abstract = {The news headline in Times of India, (13th august, 2023) read “Don’t put pressure on kids: CM to parents, expressing concern over the suicides ending their lives in Kota in the past eight months was a “matter of grave concern for us.”, after the Rajasthan CM received news of around 20 suicides by Kota Coaching institute, which over the years has gained image of a dreamland that attracts JEE and Medical aspirants. There is a heart-wrenching moment in the 2009 blockbuster Movie 3 Idiots, when Joy Lobo, a final-year student at the engineering institute, hangs himself because he is late in completing his project and the principal tells him flatly that he will fail to graduate as a result he writes, “I quit” and chooses death. Mention of Taare Zameeen par (2007) has to be included as this film had gained immense attention and popularity because of this path-breaking issue on Mental Health; that showcases Ishaan, a child who shows reluctance when it comes to going to school and studying. In another film Chichore (2019), a tragic incident which happens with Anirudh’s son who attempts suicide but gets saved, it takes him to take a trip down memory lane and reminisce his college days along with his friends, who were labelled as losers. In yet another current web series called Adhura, a 2023 release, a student at a Boarding school at Ooty, is abused for being a homosexual, turns a vampire in order to take revenge. The paper undertakes mental illness of children and adolescents, be it psychiatric disorders as evinced in the film 3 Idiots, Taare Zameeen Par or Chichore, when children are put under stress, as evidenced in Kota institute of students developing suicidal tendencies over failure or an adolescent in Adhura who because of being a homosexual, not only gets humiliated, rejected but given unnatural death, it results in his demonic form; the film addresses Adolescent sexual issues. 
It is well recognized that many psychiatric disorders are strongly influenced by cultural and social factors, as endorsed by Foucault in Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1961/1965) ‘There is rich evidence to suggest that urbanization, unemployment, overcrowding, lack of green spaces and other social determinants can contribute to psychiatric disorders. In addition, in many instances, it is the culture which determines what is normal/abnormal or deviant thereby creating disorders based on behaviors which are approved by cultures. This has been eloquently highlighted by Foucault who describes the development of a Western idea of madness. The paper will, on the whole examine how global inequality contributes to stifling the growth of markets and of capitalism, when they expand markets to sell homogenous global products targeting young and wealthy, as well as young consumers, in return making adolescents’ part of a dissatisfied, discontented generation, constantly competing, and developing depression.},
        keywords = {heart-wrenching, homosexual, vampire, psychiatric, urbanization, abnormal, madness.},
        month = {February},
        }

Cite This Article

SInha, D. P. (2025). Why Kota kills? “WHY KOTA KILLS? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MENTAL ILLNESS ALSO THROUGH SELECT BOLLYWOOD FILMS. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 11(10), 51–59.

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