3 Idiots

Story:

3 Idiots is a Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, edited, and directed by Rajkumar Hirani. Co-written by Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the film is loosely adapted from Chetan Bhagat’s novel “Five Point Someone.” It stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi in the lead roles, reuniting three years after “Rang De Basanti” (2006). Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, and Omi Vaidya play significant supporting roles.

The story, narrated through two parallel timelines, follows three friends at an Indian engineering college and satirizes the social pressures of the Indian education system. During college, Farhan and Raju bond with Rancho due to his unique perspective. Years later, a bet leads them to search for their elusive friend.

Produced by Chopra under Vinod Chopra Films, “3 Idiots” features real Indian inventions by Remya Jose, Mohammad Idris, Jahangir Painter, and Sonam Wangchuk, the latter inspiring Khan’s character. The soundtrack, composed by Shantanu Moitra with lyrics by Swanand Kirkire, complements the film’s themes.

Released on 25 December 2009, “3 Idiots” received widespread critical acclaim for its direction, themes, humor, story, screenplay, soundtrack, and performances. It was a commercial success, setting records for the highest-grossing opening weekend and opening day collections for an Indian film at the time. It also achieved success in East Asian markets like China and Japan, with a worldwide gross of ₹460 crore ($90 million), making it the highest-grossing Indian film until 2013 and the highest-grossing Indian film of the 2000s.

The film won 3 National Film Awards, including Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, and received 11 nominations at the 55th Filmfare Awards, winning 6, including Best Film, Best Director (Hirani), and Best Supporting Actor (Irani). Internationally, it won the Grand Prize at Japan’s Videoyasan Awards and was nominated for Best Outstanding Foreign Language Film at the Japan Academy Awards and Best Foreign Film at China’s Beijing International Film Festival.

“3 Idiots” is regarded as one of the greatest Indian films ever made and has had a significant social impact on attitudes toward education in India and other Asian countries like China and South Korea. It was remade in Tamil as “Nanban” (2012), which also received critical acclaim and commercial success, and in Mexico as “3 Idiotas” in 2017.