Aamir Khan denies knowing Sonam Wangchuk during 3 Idiots; old video details 2008 meeting

Speaking during a Josh Talks session about his interaction with Aamir Khan at the award ceremony, Wangchuk had said, “I told him, ‘Can you make a film on the tension in Siachen, where countries are fighting over a piece of ice while spending nearly Rs 7 crore every day? Can we show that ordinary people from both countries solve the problem and that money is instead used for education?’”

ALSO READ | Not Sonam Wangchuk, Vidhu Vinod Chopra said Phunsukh Wangdu was inspired by him

According to Wangchuk, Aamir listened with great interest and also watched an audio-visual presentation on his work that was screened during the event. Wangchuk further recalled that after the awards, he travelled to France to study Earth Architecture. A year later, when 3 Idiots released, he was flooded with emails.

“People told me, ‘The film based on you is fantastic.’ I was shocked. They also said they had shown my school.”

When he contacted his school, he was informed that a film crew had indeed visited but had not revealed the project’s identity. “They were planning to bring a lot of plastic material, so we refused permission. Later, they shot in another nearby school,” he said.

Recalling the long-standing confusion around Rancho and Phunsukh Wangdu’s character being linked to him, Wangchuk had said, “I am troubled because people constantly ask me, ‘Is your school the one shown in 3 Idiots? Are you Phunsukh Wangdu?’ I want to clarify: No, I am not Phunsukh Wangdu. I am Sonam Wangchuk. I don’t work in films, I work in real life. I work on innovations that can go from India to the world and make our country proud.”

He added, “Many journalists and young people ask me about the film. I desperately want to tell them I have nothing to do with it. But that would also be a lie.”

Who is Rancho inspired from?

Ever since 3 Idiots released in 2009, there has been a widespread belief that Rancho—particularly his alter ego Phunsukh Wangdu—was loosely inspired by Sonam Wangchuk’s life. The perception has also been reinforced over the years by members of the film’s cast. In 2022, actor Omi Vaidya, who played Chatur, referred to Wangchuk as the “real-life Phunsukh Wangdu” in an Instagram post. Just a few days ago, he once again urged support for Wangchuk by reviving his iconic character and saying, “I don’t want Phunsukh Wangdu to die.”

However, speaking at the BFI on Thursday, Aamir Khan denied that Wangchuk had inspired the character. “No. That’s not true actually. That is a misconception. I didn’t know about Mr Sonam at the time when we were doing the film 3 Idiots,” Aamir said. Referring to Omi Vaidya’s recent appeal, Aamir smiled and remarked, “He is wrong.”

The inspiration behind Rancho has long been a subject of debate. Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra has previously said that the character was based on him, while director Rajkumar Hirani has credited one of his fellow students from FTII as the inspiration. Meanwhile, Sonam Wangchuk himself has consistently maintained that while parts of his life and work may have influenced the film, he is not Phunsukh Wangdu, nor is 3 Idiots his story.