3 Idiots

3 Idiots (stylized as 3 idiots) is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy drama buddy film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, co-written by Abhijat Joshi, produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the production banner of Vinod Chopra Films and distributed by Reliance BIG Pictures. Released in India on 25 December 2009, adapted loosely from Chetan Bhagat's 2004 novel Five Point Someone: What NOT to do at IIT! and considered to be a cult film in the Hindi cinema, the film stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the titular roles, marking their reunion three years after Rang De Basanti (2006), while Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Omi Vaidya, Mona Singh, Javed Jaffrey, Parikshit Sahni and Amardeep Jha appear in pivotal roles. Narrated through two parallel dramas, one in the present and the other set ten years in the past, the story follows the friendship of three students at an Indian engineering college and is a satire about the social pressures under the Indian education system.

3 Idiots
Directed by	Rajkumar Hirani
Produced by	Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Written by	Abhijat Joshi Rajkumar Hirani
Screenplay by	Abhijat Joshi Rajkumar Hirani Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Based on	Five Point Someone: What NOT to do at IIT! by Chetan Bhagat
Starring	Aamir Khan R. Madhavan Sharman Joshi Kareena Kapoor Boman Irani Omi Vaidya Mona Singh Javed Jaffrey Parikshit Sahni Amardeep Jha
Narrated by	R. Madhavan
Music by	Score: Sanjay Wandrekar Atul Raninga Shantanu Moitra Songs: Shantanu Moitra
Cinematography	C. K. Muraleedharan
Edited by	Rajkumar Hirani
Production company	Vinod Chopra Films
Distributed by	Reliance BIG Pictures
Release date	25 December 2009 (India)
Running time	171 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹550 million
Box office	est. ₹4.60 billion

Synopsis

Two friends embark on a quest for a lost buddy. On this journey, they encounter a long-forgotten bet, a wedding they must crash, and a funeral that goes, ridiculously out of control. As they make their way through the perilous landscape, another journey begins. Their inner journey through memory lane and the story of their friend - the impressible free-thinker Rancho, who in a unique way, had touched and changed their lives. It is a story of their hostel days that swings between Rancho's romance with the spirited Pia, and his clash with an oppressive mentor, Viru Sahastrabuddhe. And then one day, suddenly, Rancho vanished. Who was he? Where did he come from? Why did he leave? The friend who influenced and inspired them to think creatively and independently, even as the conformist world called them "three idiots". Where is the original idiot now? Finally, in misty mountains with unparalleled beauty, the friends find the key to the secret.

Plot

The film begins with a wildlife photographer, Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), boarding an airplane from Delhi when he receives a phone call from Chatur Ramalingam (Omi Vaidya), his biggest rival from college, who claims to be knowing the whereabouts of his long-lost college friend, Ranchhoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad (Aamir Khan), also known as Rancho. Shocked at learning this, Farhan immediately fakes a heart attack to create an emergency landing of his flight and is rushed back to the airport in a wheelchair. Farhan later manages to escape from the airport in a taxi and meets with another college friend, Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi). Subsequently, the duo races to their former college campus, the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE), and meets up with Chatur, who reminds them both of the bet he had made with Rancho ten years ago, about who would end up more successful in the next ten years, and boasts to them both about him being the prosperous vice president of a reputable company in the United States. Frustrated, Farhan and Raju berate Chatur for wasting their time when Chatur reveals that he has located Rancho's home in Shimla and the three of them begin their journey from Delhi in search of Rancho.

Over a flashback ten years prior, it is shown that Farhan joined the prestigious ICE in his first year of college, since his father (Parikshit Sahni) forced him to pursue engineering despite his passion for wildlife photography, and immediately befriended his hostel roommate, the god-fearing Raju, who comes from an impoverished family and is afraid of both failure and job. While being ragged by the senior students, Farhan and Raju befriend their third roommate, the carefree Rancho, who comes from a wealthy family and is passionate about experimenting with different scientific theories. Rancho's easygoing approach to education always results in him being at odds with the director of the ICE, Dr. Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani), who believes in a strict and competitive education system and is nicknamed "Virus" by the ICE students. When a senior student named Joy Lobo (Ali Fazal) is denied graduation by Virus on grounds of failure to follow his project deadline, Rancho recreates Joy's project of a drone camera with the help of Farhan and Raju in an attempt to cheer him up. Unfortunately, Joy commits suicide by hanging in his room before he can see the drone camera come to life, provoking Rancho to confront Virus about the extreme pressure placed on the ICE students but is rudely rebuffed. One night, the hungry trio gatecrashes a marriage ceremony to enjoy the dinner and befriends Virus' younger daughter, Pia (Kareena Kapoor), only to later realise that the marriage is for Pia's older sister, Mona (Mona Singh). Although initially upset by Rancho's behaviour, Pia falls in love with him after Rancho pranks her shallow, materialistic boyfriend, Suhas Tandon (Sanjay Lafont), in an attempt to demonstrate his obsession about money and status. As a result, Pia breaks up with Suhas after he rebukes her for wearing an antique watch which belonged to her late mother.

Meanwhile, Virus warns Farhan and Raju about the effects of them being friends with Rancho by pointing out the modest financial situations of their families, provoking Raju to move in with Chatur, a Tamil, Uganda-born, arrogant, competitive student who believes in learning by rote memorization but is not fluent in Hindi. Chatur is nicknamed "Silencer" by the ICE students as he consumes some memory-enhancing pills with the side-effect of silent but lethal flatulence. In an attempt to teach Chatur a lesson about memorization, Rancho and Farhan make obscene modifications, like "chamatkar" ("miracle") to "balatkar" ("rape") and "dhan" ("wealth") to "stan" ("bosoms"), to the script of Chatur's Teachers' Day speech. After a disastrous speech in front of Virus, the Minister of Education and the ICE professors, a humiliated and furious Chatur drunkenly challenges Rancho to meet with him after ten years and see who is more successful. On the night before their final examinations, Raju's paralyzed father suffers from a medical emergency, but Rancho enlists Pia's help and rushes Raju's father to the hospital on time via Pia's scooter. After learning from Pia and the doctor how the timely intervention saved his father's life, Raju realises his mistake and reconciles with Rancho and Farhan. At the end of their first year in the ICE, Rancho comes first in the class, while Farhan and Raju are last and second to last, respectively. During the yearly class photograph, Rancho makes a bet with Virus that if either Raju or Farhan gets a job from the on-campus interviews, Virus will shave off his moustache.

Back in the present, Farhan, Raju and Chatur arrive in Shimla to meet Rancho, but are extremely shocked to come across a completely different man (Javed Jaffrey) identifying himself as "Ranchhoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad", whose face is pasted over that of Rancho in their first year class photograph with an ICE degree of Rancho's name. When Farhan and Raju ask Chatur how he got Rancho's address, he reveals that he managed to do so when his secretary had come to Shimla to make a business deal with "Phunsukh Wangdu", a sensational scientist and inventor with 400 patents to credit. On learning this, Farhan and Raju confront the so-called "Ranchhoddas", who is initially reluctant to reveal anything and threatens the duo with a gun, but when Farhan and Raju turn the tables on hook threaten to flush his late father's ashes down the toilet, he explains that he is the real Ranchhoddas and the "Rancho" at the ICE was his family's gardener's son, who was incredibly intelligent and gifted and was adopted by the Chanchad family after being orphaned. While Ranchhoddas himself went to London for four years, his father (Arun Bali) paid for Rancho to attend the ICE on his son's name on condition that he cut off all contact with everyone there after graduating. Rancho, who was more interested in learning than in getting a degree, agreed but warned Ranchhoddas afterwards that "two idiots" would come searching for him one day. Ranchhoddas tells Farhan and Raju that he is grateful for what all Rancho did and provides them with his real address in Ladakh, where Rancho is promptly leading a simple life as a schoolteacher, and Farhan, Raju and Chatur begin their journey once again from Shimla in search of Rancho.

Back in the past, the trio is shown to be approaching graduation in their fourth year at the ICE. One night, Rancho points out to Farhan and Raju why they consistently place last; Farhan's passion is wildlife photography, not engineering, and Raju lacks self-confidence. When Farhan and Raju promise to confront their problems if Rancho confesses his feelings for Pia, the trio breaks into Virus' home in and Farhan and Raju urinate on his letterbox in a drunken state. During the trio's escape, however, Virus spots Raju and gives him an ultimatum the next day to either act as his witness in rusticating Rancho or being rusticated from the ICE himself. Neither wishing to disappoint his family nor betray his friend, a distraught Raju attempts suicide by jumping from heights and passes into a coma, but successfully recovers over the next few months with the support and care of Rancho, Farhan and Pia, while Virus also rescinds his rustication. With a newfound perspective of his life, Raju confidently attends his on-campus interview and manages to secure a job in an engineering firm, while Farhan also convinces his father about his passion for wildlife photography and contentment with the job he secured with his role model, wildlife photographer Andre Istvan, in Hungary. According to the bet made by Rancho, Virus' private barber shaves off his moustache and in an attempt to protect his fragile ego, Virus drunkenly decides to sabotage Raju's chances of success by setting an unfairly difficult examination. However, Pia visits Rancho in a drunken state and provides him with the duplicate keys of Virus' office, encouraging him to copy the examination papers set by Virus for Raju.

The story forwards to the journey where Farhan and Raju suddenly remember Pia and decide to take her along with them to Rancho. As Chatur protests against the detour, stating that it would jeapordize his meeting with Phunsukh Wangdu, the duo ties him up inside the car trunk and gatecrashes Pia's marriage ceremony with Suhas in Manali. Farhan sneaks in to reunite with Pia while Raju disguises himself as a housekeeper for Suhas. Pia initially refuses to go with Farhan, despite hearing Suhas screaming at Raju for ruining his expensive marriage suit, leading Farhan to realise that their plan has worked. Raju escapes in the heat of the moment with the marriage suit, assuring Suhas that he will return it in mint condition, but instead proceeds to fill in as the bridegroom. As Pia finds this out, she grows concerned over public reaction to the ruse, causing Raju to reveal himself and confront Pia over her love for Rancho, even as Suhas arrives in a gown. As she spots Farhan at the entrance, with the car door opened, Pia breaks free from the bond and escapes with Farhan, Raju and Chatur in front of the shocked Suhas, Virus, Mona and all the marriage guests to go to Ladakh and meet Rancho.

The story rewinds to their final year at the ICE where Rancho and Farhan use the duplicate keys provided by Pia to break into Virus' office and are successful in copying the examination papers for Raju. Despite Raju refusing to use the examination papers, Virus discovers what happened and angrily has the trio rusticated from the ICE in the middle of the night, causing Pia to admit her role in the events and confront Virus over her brother's suicidal demise, which was misinterpreted by Virus as an accident, simply because his passion for literature and desire to become a writer was overruled by Virus, who was insistent on his son becoming an engineer. As the trio is leaving the campus in the middle of heavy rainstorms, they come across the now-pregnant Mona, who goes under labor pain moments after a distressed Pia has walked out of the house, and is unable to be driven to the hospital. Applying their knowledge of engineering, the trio brings Mona inside the table tennis room in the campus and successfully conducts her delivery, by modifying a vacuum cleaner into a makeshift venthouse, with the help of Pia (who is still in self-isolation) from the hospital through a video call and other students. Realising the fault in his ways and how genius Rancho is, a grateful Virus acknowledges him by handing him over a valuable space pen, which he promised to give only to his most extraordinary student, and rescinds the trio's rustications once again. Rancho, along with Farhan and Raju, tops the university in the final year, but abruptly leaves the graduation ceremony in a taxi without informing anyone and has never been heard of again.

Over the end of the flashback, Farhan, Raju, Pia and Chatur reach Ladakh and at the address provided by Ranchhoddas, they are astonished to find a thriving school that is probably run by Rancho. The group also meets Manmohan, formerly an errand boy at the ICE nicknamed "Millimeter" by the students, and now Rancho's personal assistant in Ladakh, who reveals that Rancho has keenly followed Farhan and Raju's careers. Finally, Farhan, Raju, Pia and Chatur have an emotional reunion with Rancho on a sandbar where Rancho admits that he is still in love with Pia and the two of them share a passionate kiss. Chatur condescendingly insults Rancho's apparent status as a schoolteacher and declares that he has won the bet. He proceeds to make Rancho sign the document of "Declaration of Defeat" and even states that he deserves Virus' space pen. As Chatur walks away in supposed victory, Farhan, Raju and Pia ask for Rancho's real name and he reveals himself, in a plot twist, to be Phunsukh Wangdu, the successful entrepreneur, whom Chatur's company is courting. Following this revelation, Rancho contacts Chatur, who is a few distance away from the group, and considers calling off the deal. A flabbergasted Chatur accepts defeat and Rancho, Farhan, Raju and Pia run away laughing. The film ends with a humiliated Chatur chasing after Rancho, Farhan, Raju and Pia and Farhan quoting Rancho's words on success; "Pursue excellence, and success will follow, pants down".

Main

• Aamir Khan as Ranchhoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad (a.k.a. Rancho) / Phunsukh Wangdu; Pia's lover, Farhan and Raju's friend and Chatur's biggest college rival
• R. Madhavan as Farhan Qureshi; Rancho, Raju and Pia's friend and Chatur's biggest college rival
• Sharman Joshi as Raju Rastogi; Rancho, Farhan and Pia's friend and Chatur's biggest college rival
• Kareena Kapoor as Pia Sahastrabuddhe; Rancho's lover, Farhan and Raju's friend, Virus' younger daughter and Mona's younger sister
• Boman Irani as Dr. Viru Sahastrabuddhe (a.k.a. Virus); Pia and Mona's father and the director of the ICE
• Omi Vaidya as Chatur Ramalingam (a.k.a. Silencer); Rancho, Farhan and Raju's biggest college rival

Supporting

• Mona Singh as Mona Sahastrabuddhe; Virus' older daughter and Pia's older sister
• Javed Jaffrey as the real Ranchhoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad
• Parikshit Sahni as Mr. Qureshi (nicknamed "Hitler Qureshi" by Rancho); Farhan's orthodox father
• Amardeep Jha as Mrs. Rastogi (nicknamed "Mother Teresa" by Rancho); Raju's hardworking mother
• Sanjay Lafont as Suhas Tandon; Pia's ostentatious and materialistic ex-boyfriend
• Rahul Kumar as Manmohan (a.k.a. Millimeter); an errand boy at the ICE
  • Dushyant Wagh as grown-up Manmohan (a.k.a. Centimeter); Rancho's personal assistant in Ladakh
• Farida Dadi as Mrs. Qureshi; Farhan's loving mother
• Mukund Bhatt as Mr. Rastogi; Raju's paralyzed father and a former postmaster
• Chaitali Bose as Kamini Rastogi; Raju's unwed sister

Cameo Appearances

• Jayant Kripalani as Campus Interview Panel Head who conducts Raju's job interview
• Arun Bali as Shyamaldas Chanchad; Ranchhoddas' late father
• Rajeev Ravindranathan as Lead Ragging Senior at ICE
• Rajendra Patwardhan as Govind; Virus' private barber at the ICE
• Achyut Potdar as Machine class professor who is annoyed by Rancho's theory of an easygoing education system
• Ali Fazal as Joy Lobo; a senior student at the ICE
• Madhav Vaze as Mr. Lobo; Joy's widowed father
• Akhil Mishra as Librarian Dubey who helps Chatur prepare his Teachers' Day speech
• Atul Tiwari as Education Minister R. D. Tripathi who listens to Chatur's Teachers' Day speech in the auditorium
• Supriya Shukla as Matron in hospital with Pia

Character Analysis

• Ranchhoddas Chanchad / Phunsukh Wangdu (portrayed by Aamir Khan): Ranchhoddas, also known as Rancho, is the protagonist of the movie and is a free-spirited, imaginative and innovative student who challenges the traditional education system. He is a source of inspiration for his friends and teaches them the importance of following their dreams.
• Farhan Qureshi (portrayed by R. Madhavan): Farhan's true interest is wildlife photography, but due to parental pressure, he pursues engineering. He is initially intimidated by Rancho's unconventional approach to life. However, he learns to embrace his individuality and pursue his own passions.
• Raju Rastogi (portrayed by Sharman Joshi): Raju is a shy and hardworking student who struggles with the pressure of performing well in school. He is a loyal friend to Rancho and Farhan and learns to assert himself with their help. He loves the profession, but his fears prevent him from reaching his full ability. With Rancho's aid, he discovers his true self.
• Pia Sahastrabuddhe (portrayed by Kareena Kapoor): Pia is a strong and independent character who stands up for what she believes in. She is Rancho's love interest and helps him, Farhan and Raju on many occasions.
• Dr. Viru Sahastrabuddhe (portrayed by Boman Irani): Dr. Viru Sahastrabuddhe, also known as Virus, is the strict and oppressive dean of the ICE. He is portrayed as a symbol of the traditional Indian educational system and its flaws. He places more emphasis on grades and performance rather than creativity and critical thinking. Despite his strictness, he is respected by the students, and his character serves as an important part of the movie's message about the importance of finding one's passion and pursuing it.
• Chatur Ramalingam (portrayed by Omi Vaidya): Chatur is an arrogant and competitive student who is determined to get ahead in life by any means necessary. He is Rancho's main antagonist and is a symbol of the traditional education system.

Production

The film joined genuine Indian developments made by Remya Jose, Mohammad Idris, Jahangir Painter and Sonam Wangchuk. The film was a critical and commercial success and audio the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend in India, had the highest opening day collections for an Indian film up until that point and also held the record for the highest net collections in the first week for a Bollywood film. It additionally got one of only a handful few Indian films at an opportunity to get successful in East Asian business sectors, for example, China and Japan, at last carrying its overall gross to ₹3.92 billion ($90 million) — it was the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time. The film likewise socially affected perspectives to schooling in India, and also education in other Asian nations, for example, China.

Awards

The film won six Filmfare Awards including Best Film and three National Film Awards including Best Popular Film. Overseas, it won the Grand Prize at Japan's Videoyasan Awards while it was nominated for Best Outstanding Foreign Language Film at the Japan Academy Awards and Best Foreign Film at China's Beijing International Film Festival. In 2012, a Tamil remake of the film was released and it was called Nanban and in 2017, a Mexican remake of the film was released and it was called 3 Idiotas.

Sequel

When asked about plans of a 3 Idiots sequel in an interview with Hindustan Times, screenwriter Abhijat Joshi replied, saying, "Honestly, I don't know. We have an idea for the 3 Idiots sequel, a Munna Bhai part three, and also for a PK sequel; but the PK and Munna Bhai sequels interest me the most. So, I think the 3 Idiots sequel may happen in the future, but these two I really want to work on." In January 2016, director Rajkumar Hirani and actor Aamir Khan confirmed that they were considering a 3 Idiots sequel. Khan told reporters, ""Raju Hirani has given me a hint about 3 Idiots' sequel and I am giving you all a hint. The film will happen if and whenever he will write the script." Hirani agreed, saying "this is one film that I really want to do."

In June 2018, Hirani was asked a question while promoting his upcoming film Sanju and he was quoted as saying, "I definitely want to make a sequel to 3 Idiots, but it’s still in the initial stage and we will take a fair amount of time to develop the script". The report also said that Hirani will begin shooting for the Munna Bhai sequel with Sanjay Dutt. Work on 3 Idiots will begin only after Hirani is done with Munna Bhai 3.