Mumbai: Education reformist and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk has taken a dig at actor Aamir Khan after the latter reportedly said that he did not know him.
Reacting to the remark, Wangchuk referenced Aamir’s 2008 film Ghajini and joked that the actor may have forgotten meeting him.
“Kaafi videos aaye jismein woh Ghajini outfit mein mera speech dekh rahe the, toh shayad woh Ghajini outfit mein the, toh short-term memory loss hua ho sakta hai. 15 minutes baad bhool gaye honge, toh main hairaan nahi hoon. Warna bahut detail mein mile the hum. Humne suna hai ki woh apne character mein bahut ghus jaate hain, toh shayad Ghajini mein woh itne ghus chuke the ki jis award function mein woh aaye, jahan main award le raha tha, woh bhi bhool gaye honge. (There were quite a few videos of him watching my speech while dressed as Ghajini. So perhaps he was still in the Ghajini outfit and had short-term memory loss. Maybe he forgot about it 15 minutes later, so I’m not surprised. Otherwise, we had met in quite some detail. We’ve heard that he gets deeply into his characters, so perhaps he got so immersed in Ghajini that he even forgot the award function where he had come and where I was receiving an award),” Wangchuk said on Prakhar Gupta’s podcast.
Wangchuk said he had several detailed discussions with Aamir, during which they exchanged ideas and experiences.
He also clarified that ‘3 Idiots’ should not be described as a film based on his life or as his biography.
According to Wangchuk, the connection lies in the influence and inspiration behind the film.
Wangchuk suggested that Aamir may have unknowingly drawn inspiration from their conversations and incorporated some of those ideas into the film’s existing script, without the writers necessarily knowing their original source.
However, Aamir has previously denied knowing Wangchuk when ‘3 Idiots’ was being made.
Speaking during an interaction at the British Film Institute (BFI), Aamir said, “No, that’s not true, actually. That is a misconception. I didn’t know about Mr Sonam Wangchuk at that time when we were doing the film.”
He added, “I know that, I saw a video of Chatur, just recently he said that… No, he’s wrong. Maybe that’s what Chatur was thinking, but I want to tell you neither did Raju, nor Abhijat (one of the two writers), nor I, we didn’t know about Sonam.”
Aamir further said that Wangchuk’s work deserves respect regardless of any connection to 3 Idiots.
“However, what Mr Sonam is doing is good work anyway. He doesn’t need to be based on the character of 3 Idiots for us to respect him and the work he’s done,” he said.
