As the sun set on Sunday, the spacious Silver Jubilee Towers’ playground on the VIT Vellore campus was lit up for the fourth and concluding day of Riviera 2024, the annual international sports and cultural festival.
Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu participated in the valedictory function in the presence of VIT vice presidents Sankar Viswanathan and G.V. Selvam. “I liked concepts such as creativity and competition at Riviera 2024. Competition is within oneself, not with others,” she said.
Addressing students, Ms. Samantha said that being a school topper had never taught her anything and she had learnt only from failures. “Be ambitious, but you should be flexible in achieving your goal...”
The students had asked her about her career, role model in the film industry, and the most challenging role she has taken up. “Role in real life remains the most-challenging as there is no written script or role models to follow...,” she responded.
Later, she gave away the overall champions trophy for sports to VIT Vellore, and the overall champions trophy for culturals to SRM Kattankulathur. Riviera 2024 had events such as Aikya, Infusion and marathon. Some new events including Go karting, Tharle Riviera, Paintball Arena, Anime arcade, Zero gravity dance party, Brush and bliss and JCPL were also held.
The festival, in which The Hindu was the media partner, witnessed 55 informal and gaming events, 13 art and drama events, 18 adventure events, 10 music, nine premium, seven quiz Wordsworth, and 22 pre-Riviera events.