Aamir Khan has found himself at the center of a social media controversy following his recent comments about engineer and education reformer Sonam Wangchuk, who is currently on a long hunger strike demanding constitutional guarantees for Ladakh.During his recent interaction with the media, Aamer was asked about Wangchuk’s ongoing fast. Since Aamir Rancho’s character in ‘3 Idiots’ has long been believed to be inspired by Sonam Wangchuk, the actor’s response has attracted widespread attention. Aamir denied that he knew Wangchuk before the film was made in 2009, claiming that neither he nor the film’s writers were aware of him at the time.
Aamir also said on an occasion, “I saw a video of Chatur (Omi Vaidya) recently, and he said that. But he is wrong. Maybe that is what Chatur was thinking, but I want to tell you that neither Raju nor Abhijat (Rajkumar Hirani, Abhijat Joshi), the writers, knew about Sonam sir.”
However, what Mr. Sonam is doing is a good job anyway. He doesn’t have to rely on the character of 3 idiots for us to respect him and the work he does. “I wanted to share this from a realistic point of view.”However, social media users have now questioned this claim by resurfacing an old video that appears to put Aamir and Wangchuk at the same event months before the ‘3 Idiots’ hit the ground running.The viral clip comes from one of Sonam Wangchuk’s TED Talks, where he recalls meeting Aamir Khan, and even played footage from the 2008 awards ceremony in which he received the ‘Real Heroes’ award for his contributions to education and social development. Among the audience, Aamir Khan can be seen sitting next to his then wife
Kiran Rao
.
While accepting the honor, Wangchuk praised Aamir’s film “Taare Zameen Par” for highlighting issues in the education system. He also proposed an idea for a future film focusing on improving school education in remote border areas such as Siachen. The footage shows Aamir and Kiran smiling and nodding as they listen to his speech.The timeline has become a major discussion point online. The award ceremony was held in 2008, and Aamir was seen sporting the ‘Ghajini’ look, which reports suggest he adopted around March that year around the film’s release. Meanwhile, principal photography for 3 Idiots began later in July 2008 with supporting actors, while Aamir and
Kareena Kapoor
Join the schedule in Shimla and Ladakh during August and September.
Given Aamir’s reputation for completely immersing himself in his roles, many believe he would not have shot ‘3 Idiots’ while maintaining his ‘Ghajini’ hairstyle.Although Aamir briefly stopped shooting for ‘3 Idiots’ to promote ‘Ghajini’, which was released in December 2008, he had already switched to the shorter hairstyle seen in ‘3 Idiots’ during the promotional campaign. The shooting of Rajkumar Hirani’s film eventually wrapped in February 2009.Based on this sequence of events, many netizens argue that the award ceremony attended by Aamir Khan and Sonam Wangchuk took place long before the completion – and even the principal photography of the film “3 Idiots”. This has raised speculation about Aamir’s recent statement that he was not aware of Bangchuk before the film.Despite the controversy, Amer expressed concern for Wangchuk’s health during the recent interaction and praised his contributions to society. However, his assertion that he did not know Wangchuk before “3 Idiots” has sparked controversy across social media, with many users citing the resurfaced 2008 footage as evidence to the contrary.Meanwhile, amid Aamir’s statement, his ex-wife Kiran Rao came out in support of Wangchuk.
