'Short term memory loss': Sonam Wangchuk responds to Aamir Khan’s ‘3 Idiots’ claim

Aamir had rejected co-star Omi Vaidya’s claim that the character was based on Wangchuk, saying that he, director Rajkumar Hirani and writer Abhijat Joshi did not know Wangchuk at the time.

An old video of Aamir meeting Wangchuk before the 2009 release of 3 Idiots later resurfaced, prompting further discussion over the character’s inspiration.

Reacting to Aamir’s statement, Wangchuk jokingly suggested that the actor may have forgotten their meeting.

“In the videos that resurfaced, he was watching my speech in his Ghajini outfit. Maybe because he was in the Ghajini outfit, he may have encountered short-term memory loss. He may have forgotten our meeting after 15 minutes. So, I’m not surprised,” Wangchuk said on Prakhar Gupta’s podcast.

Wangchuk said his interaction with Aamir was more than a brief encounter and included a detailed discussion.

“They say he gets too immersed in his characters. So, maybe he was too immersed in the Ghajini character when he saw me receive an award at an award function he also attended. Otherwise we discussed a lot of ideas,” he said.

However, Wangchuk stopped short of claiming that the 3 Idiots character was entirely based on him.

“That’s what we call an influence or an inspiration, right?” he said, adding that Aamir could have taken ideas from their interaction to the writers, who may subsequently have developed them differently.

Wangchuk also suggested that the influence could have been subconscious and said he had no issue with whichever version of events was ultimately correct.

The controversy resurfaced after Aamir said that Phunsukh Wangdu was not inspired by Wangchuk. The character, played by Aamir, is a renowned educator and environmentalist from Leh, Ladakh whose identity is revealed towards the end of the film.

3 Idiots, released in 2009, was directed by Rajkumar Hirani and written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi. The film starred Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R Madhavan and Sharman Joshi, among others, and became one of the highest-grossing Indian films of its time.

A sequel to the film has also reportedly been planned, with the original cast expected to return.