'Short-term memory loss': Sonam Wangchuk on Aamir denying meeting him
What's the story
Sonam Wangchuk, who's believed to have inspired Aamir Khan's character in 3 Idiots, has responded to Khan's recent claim that he didn't know Wangchuk during the film's production. Speaking on Prakhar Gupta's podcast, Wangchuk joked that Khan might have suffered from "short-term memory loss" since they had met before. "In the videos that resurfaced, he was watching my speech in his Ghajini outfit," said Wangchuk.
Details
Wangchuk on Khan's claim
Wangchuk further added, "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."
"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."
Clarification
Was Phunsukh Wangdu based on Wangchuk?
Despite his cheeky remarks, Wangchuk clarified he doesn't claim that Khan's character, Phunsukh Wangdu, was entirely modeled on him.
"That's what we call an influence or an inspiration, right? Maybe he went with all those ideas to his writers and changed the script," said Wangchuk.
"There was already a script. Maybe he did it subconsciously, and maybe the writers didn't know where it came from."
Background
What did Khan say about Wangchuk?
During Wangchuk's hunger strike at Delhi's Jantar Mantar in July, Khan denied that Wangdu was based on Wangchuk.
He said, "I didn't know who Sonam Wangchuk was when we were making the film."
"I saw a video of Chatur (actor Omi Vaidya's viral video on Wangchuk) just recently, and he said that."
"But he is wrong...Neither Raju nor Abhijat (director Rajkumar Hirani and writer Abhijat Joshi), who are the two writers, we didn't know about Mr. Sonam."
Film details
More about '3 Idiots'
In 3 Idiots, Khan played Wangdu, a celebrated teacher and environmentalist from Leh, Ladakh.
The film was directed by Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
It also starred Kareena Kapoor, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani, Mona Singh, Ali Fazal, and Jaaved Jaffrey.
The movie was a massive hit at the box office with earnings of over ₹460 crore worldwide.
It was based on Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone.