Mumbai, July 17, 2026
Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan has revealed that his character Phunsukh Wangdu from the 2009 blockbuster “3 Idiots” is not based on educationist and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk.
Aamir was speaking at the ongoing London Indian Film Festival when an audience member asked him about Sonam Wanchuk being the inspiration behind 3 Idiots.
Aamir replied: “No, that’s not true actually. That is a misconception.”
Aamir said he didn’t know about Sonam when we were making the film.
The superstar said: “I know that I saw a video of Chatur (Omi Vaidya), just recently, he said that, no, he’s wrong. Maybe that’s what Chatur was thinking, but I want to tell you that neither Raju (Rajkumar Hirani) nor Abhijat (Abhijat Joshi) were the two writers, nor I, we didn’t know about Sonam.”
He added what Sonam is doing is good work in any case.
“He doesn’t have to be based on the character of 3 Idiots for us to respect him and it won’t get me down. Just from a factual point of view, I wanted to say that neither Raju nor Abhijat… It’s never been clarified before this. He also has said that the character is not based on him. He’s also clarified.”
“3 Idiots” is directed by Rajkumar Hirani. The film stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the title roles, while Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Mona Singh and Omi Vaidya play supporting roles.
Narrated through two parallel timelines, one in the present and the other set ten years earlier, the story follows the friendship of three students at an Indian engineering college and is a satire about the intrinsic paternalism under the Indian education system.
Asked what he has to say about Sonam’s hunger strike?
He added: “Well, I think all of us are very concerned for his health and his life and we hope that it ends well and all of us are hoping that he ends his fast and looks after his health.”(Agency)
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