Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan denied that his character in “3 Idiots” was based on educator and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, addressing the long-running rumor during a BFI In Conversation event at BFI Southbank, held as part of the London Indian Film Festival, which separately marked the 25th anniversary of “Lagaan.”
“No, that’s not true, actually. No, no. That is a misconception,” Khan said.
The question arose after “3 Idiots” co-star Omi Vaidya, who played Chatur in the film, shared a video on social media linking Khan’s character, Phunsukh Wangdu, to Wangchuk and drawing attention to Wangchuk’s deteriorating health during a hunger strike protesting for the resignation of India’s education minister.
“I know that I saw a video of Chatur just recently. He said that yes. No, he’s wrong,” Khan said. “Maybe that’s what Chatur was thinking, but I want to tell you that neither Raju [director Rajkumar Hirani] nor Abhijat [writer Joshi] were the two writers, nor I. We didn’t know about Mr. Sonam. However, what Mr. 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 the work that he does.”
Asked about Wangchuk’s hunger strike, Khan said: “I think all of us are very concerned for his health, and we hope that it ends well. All of us are hoping that he ends his fast.”
“Lagaan” released in 2001 and went on to be nominated for an Oscar. Asked whether he anticipated discussing “Lagaan” on a London stage a quarter-century later, Khan said no. “We were just frightened. It was just terrified trying to get it right,” he said of the production. Later in the conversation, he described the film as “a film about the triumph of the human spirit.”
Khan grew up in a filmmaking family; his father and uncle were both filmmakers. Asked about his early interest in acting, he said: “My parents and everyone in my family were dead against it.”
Khan reached state champion level in tennis as a junior player before giving up the sport. Recalling an exhibition match with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, he said: “I have the distinction of having Federer and Djokovic sitting on either side of the net, trying to lower it … I’m the only person who has that privilege.”
Khan’s first exposure to a film set came around age seven or eight, during “Yaadon Ki Baaraat.” He recalled the pancake makeup applied to his face “smelled horrible.” Of the set itself, he said: “It was very scary. It was all very dark, and there was – it was very noisy, and people were shouting and screaming.”
Khan named “Holi,” Ketan Mehta’s 1984 film, as a turning point. “I wanted to be a part of the film just to see what a Steadicam is and how it works,” he said, noting the equipment never arrived and the film was shot handheld instead.
Asked about the perception of a golden age of Hindi cinema in the 1980s and ’90s, Khan pointed further back. “For me, the golden era of Indian cinema is 50s and 60s,” he said, citing the writers, composers and filmmakers of that period, and describing the 1980s by contrast as commercial cinema’s lowest point before a wave of younger directors began reviving it.
Discussing his choice of roles as a leading man, includingDeepa Mehta’s “1947 Earth,” Khan said: “I was constantly swimming against the tide.”
Khan said he was in the middle of a string of box-office failures when director Mahesh Bhatt offered him a film. He turned it down because he did not like the script. “Had I compromised that day, man, I think my entire career would be a series of compromises,” he said. “When I could stick to what I believed in at my worst, it gave me a lot of strength.” He said the experience taught him to weigh three factors before signing any project going forward: the strength of the script, complete trust in the director and a producer willing to properly resource the creative team.
Asked about the years following “Lagaan” and “Dil Chahta Hai,” both released in 2001, Khan said: “I was actually going through a personal crisis myself. I was going through my divorce with Reena, and so I wasn’t in a state of mind emotionally to work.”
He made a comeback with Mehta’s “Mangal Pandey.” Discussing his research process for “Mangal Pandey,” Khan said: “There’s very little written about Mangal Pandey.” He noted that London’s India House museum holds only a few pages on the 19th-century soldier and revolutionary.
Asked about directing child actors on “Taare Zameen Par,” his feature directorial debut, Khan said: “I have to say, directing the kids was the easiest thing. I didn’t have to tell them anything. They were so natural, they just got it.”
Asked about the run of hits that followed, including “Ghajini,” “3 Idiots,” “Dhoom 3,” “PK” and “Dangal,” Khan said: “I was really fortunate to have some great stories coming my way,” adding that he had no way of predicting which of the films would connect with audiences before their release.
Khan pointed to the smartphone as the dividing line in how audiences watch films, contrasting today’s viewers with what he called a “captive audience” of earlier decades. “I’m competing with 1000 other things,” he said, adding that storytelling remains the constant that determines whether a film connects, regardless of format.
Asked about his process, Khan said: “My first step is trying to get into the head of the character. Once that is clear to me, then everything else comes from that – the way I look, the way I behave, the way the language – all of that comes from it.”
Khan’s next film an Indo-Australian project. Aamir Khan Productions, Mind Blowing Films and Kabir Khan Films have unveiled “Silkyara 41,” a feature inspired by the 2023 rescue mission at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand, India. The film is written by Australian screenwriter Andrew Anastasios (“The Water Diviner”) and directed by Kabir Khan (“Bajrangi Bhaijaan,” “’83′”), and centers on the role played by tunneling expert Arnold Dix in the operation. Prep begins Aug. 1 and the film begins principal photography in November.