SUNY Oneonta Welcomes Rajiv Surendra

By: Casey Riordan

On February 15th, Rajiv Surendra aka Kevin G from the movie Mean Girls came to SUNY Oneonta to speak to fellow Oneonta students about his life and some of the struggles he has endured. I spoke to Rajiv before he went on stage and asked him what his favorite project he had done since Mean Girls. He responded saying, "Man that is a hard one, nothing has really topped that but my journey trying to become the character in Life Of Pie was a great life experience."

Rajiv Surendra on left Me on Right

Rajiv spent most of his time telling us about his life. Mean girls was the first movie he was ever in and had a blast. He stated how all the actors and actresses were up and coming and because of that they all learned from each other. He then began his journey to try and get the part of the main character in the movie Life of Pi. Life of Pi is a movie based on a Indian family who owns a zoo and moves to Canada, but as they were moving their ship sinks and Pi is left on a raft with a tiger. Rajiv dropped out of college where he was currently enrolled at the University of Toronto as a double major to travel to India.

Rajiv Surendra on stage speaking about his Mean Girls experience

His journey lasted over 6 years. After he left India Rajiv taught himself how to swim which took 4 years. The only thing left to fulfill his needs was finding someone who was stranded out at sea. That is when Rajiv traveled to Maine and spoke with Steven Callahan the author of Adrift. Steven gave him in-depth stories on what is was like being lost at sea and it helped Rajiv understand what it could potentially be like.

A few years went by and Rajiv got terrible news. The director of Life of Pi casted a boy from India because he wanted someone who wasn't an actor. Rajiv was devastated for a long time but realized it was a great life experience and would not trade it.

Check out Rajivs new book coming out!!

Cover of Rajiv's new book Elephants in my Backyard