Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan denied that his character in “3 Idiots” was based on educator and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, addressing the long-running rumor during a BFI In Conversation event at BFI Southbank, held as part of the London Indian Film Festival, which separately marked the 25th anniversary of “Lagaan.” “No, that’s not true, actually. No, no. That is a misconception,” Khan said. The question arose after “3 Idiots” co-star Omi Vaidya, who played Chatur in the film, shared a video on social media linking Khan’s character, Phunsukh Wangdu, to Wangchuk and drawing attention to Wangchuk’s deteriorating health during a hunger strike protesting for the resignation of India’s education minister. blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-variety-article-mid-article-uid0' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ["mid-article1","mid-articleX","mid","mid-article"] ) .setTargeting( 'viewable', 'yes' ) .setSubAdUnitPath("ros\/mid-article") .addSize([[300,250],[2,2],[300,251],[2,4],[4,2],[320,480],[620,366]]) .setClsOptimization("minsize") ; }); Popular on Variety if ( !window.pmc.harmony?.isEventAdScheduledTime() ) { pmcCnx.cmd.push(function() { pmcCnx({ settings: { plugins: { pmcAtlasMG: { iabPlcmt: 2, } } }, playerId: 'fdaee7b3-292f-4a85-89bb-29a56b567de3', playlistId: '019eb8f5-8351-7af5-8dd4-29ad0d5ed821', }).render("connatix_contextual_player_div"); }); } else { // This should only be get called when page cache is not cleared and it's event time. window.pmc.harmony?.switchToHarmonyPlayer(); } “I know that I saw a video of Chatur just recently. He said that yes. No, he’s wrong,” Khan said. “Maybe that’s what Chatur was thinking, but I want to tell you that neither Raju [director Rajkumar Hirani] nor Abhijat [writer Joshi] were the two writers, nor I. We didn’t know about Mr. Sonam. However, what Mr. Sonam is doing is good work. In any case, he doesn’t have to be based on the character of ‘3 Idiots’ for us to respect him and the work that he does.” Asked about Wangchuk’s hunger strike, Khan said: “I think all of us are very concerned for his health, and we hope that it ends well. All of us are hoping that he ends his fast.” “Lagaan” released in 2001 and went on to be nominated for an Oscar. Asked whether he anticipated discussing “Lagaan” on a London stage a quarter-century later, Khan said no. “We were just frightened. It was just terrified trying to get it right,” he said of the production. Later in the conversation, he described the film as “a film about the triumph of the human spirit.” blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-dsk-tab-mid-article2-uid1' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ["mid","mid-article2","mid-articleX"] ) .setTargeting( 'viewable', 'yes' ) .setSubAdUnitPath("ros\/mid-article2") .addSize([[320,480],[300,250],[300,251],[2,4],[4,2],[620,366]]) .setClsOptimization("minsize") ; }); Khan grew up in a filmmaking family; his father and uncle were both filmmakers. Asked about his early interest in acting, he said: “My parents and everyone in my family were dead against it.” Khan reached state champion level in tennis as a junior player before giving up the sport. Recalling an exhibition match with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, he said: “I have the distinction of having Federer and Djokovic sitting on either side of the net, trying to lower it … I’m the only person who has that privilege.” Khan’s first exposure to a film set came around age seven or eight, during “Yaadon Ki Baaraat.” He recalled the pancake makeup applied to his face “smelled horrible.” Of the set itself, he said: “It was very scary. It was all very dark, and there was – it was very noisy, and people were shouting and screaming.” Khan named “Holi,” Ketan Mehta’s 1984 film, as a turning point. “I wanted to be a part of the film just to see what a Steadicam is and how it works,” he said, noting the equipment never arrived and the film was shot handheld instead.