3 Idiots

3 Idiots (Hindi: थ्री इडीयट्स) is a 2009 Bollywood comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani.

Upon release, the film broke all opening box office records in India. It was the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend in India and has the highest opening day collections for a Bollywood film. It also has the record for highest net collections in the first week for a Bollywood film. Within 10 days of its release, the film crossed the 1 billion mark in India and became the first film of 2009 to do so. The film also created a new box office record for a release in the last quarter of a year (October to December), breaking the previous record set by Ghajini. It is also the highest-grossing film to be released in the second half of the year (July to December), breaking the previous record also held by Ghajini.

3 Idiots has become the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time in India^[1] and is also the highest grossing Indian film ever breaking the record made by the Tamil film, Dasavathaaram a 2008 Kamal Haasan starrer.^[2] The film set a box office record for the Indian film industry, grossing Rs 470 crore (US$ 100 million) worldwide.^[3] It was expected to be the first Indian film to be officially released on YouTube, within 12 weeks of releasing in theaters on March 25, 2010, but never got released.^[4] The film also went on to win many awards, winning six Filmfare Awards including best film and best director, and ten Star Screen Awards. Furthermore, it won 16 IIFA awards.

The film also uses real inventions by little known people in India's backyards. The brains behind the innovations were Remya Jose, a student from Kerala, who created the exercise-bicycle-cum-washing-machine, Mohammad Idris, a barber from Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, who invented a bicycle-powered horse clipper, and Jahangir Painter, a painter from Maharashtra, who made the scooter-powered flour mill.^[5]

Plot

Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi), and Rancchoddas "Rancho" Shyamaldas Chanchad (Aamir Khan) are three engineering students who share a room in a hostel at the Imperial College of Engineering, one of the best colleges in India. While Farhan and Raju are average students from modest backgrounds, Rancho is from a rich family. Farhan wants to become a wildlife photographer, but has joined engineering college to fulfil his father's wish. Raju on the other hand wants to uplift his family fortunes. Rancho is a wealthy genius who studies for the sheer joy of it. However, Rancho's passion is for knowledge and taking apart and building machines rather than the conventional obsession of the other students with exam ranks. With his different approach Rancho incurs the wrath of dean of college, Professor Viru Sahastrabudhhe (ViruS) (Boman Irani). Rancho irritates his lecturers by giving creative and unorthodox answers, and confronts ViruS after fellow student Joy Lobo hangs himself in his dormitory room. Joy had requested an extension on his major project on compassionate grounds—his father had suffered a stroke—but ViruS refused, saying that he himself was completely unmoved by his own son's accidental death after being hit by a train. Rancho denounces the rat race, dog-eat-dog, mindless rote learning mentality of the institution, blaming it for Lobo's death.

Threatened by Rancho's talent and free spirit, ViruS labels him an "idiot" and attempts on a number of occasions to destroy his friendship with Farhan and Raju, warning them and their parents to steer clear of Rancho. In contrast, ViruS’ model student is Chatur Ramalingam or "Silencer", (Omi Vaidya) who sees a high rank at the prestigious college as his ticket to higher social status, corporate power, and therefore wealth. Chatur conforms to the expectations of the system. Rancho humiliates Chatur, who is awarded the honour of making a speech at an award ceremony, by substituting obscenities into the text, which has been written by the librarian. As expected, Chatur mindlessly memorises the speech, without noticing that anything is amiss, partly aided by his lack of knowledge on Hindi. His speech becomes the laughing stock of the audience, infuriating the authorities in the process.

Meanwhile, Rancho also falls in love with ViruS' medical student daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor) when he, Raju and Farhan crash her sister's wedding banquet in order to get a free meal, in the process further infuriating ViruS.

Meanwhile, the three students continue to anger ViruS, although Rancho continues to come first in every exam, while Chatur is always second, and Farhan and Raju are inevitably in the last two positions. The tensions come to a head when the three friends, who are already drunk, break into ViruS's house at night to allow Rancho to propose to Pia, and then urinate on a door inside the compound before running away when ViruS senses intruders. The next day, ViruS threatens to expel Raju lest he talks on the other two. Unable to choose between betraying his friend or letting down his family, Raju jumps out of the 3rd floor window and lands on a courtyard, but after extensive care from Pia and his roommates, awakes from a coma.

The experience has changed Farhan and Raju, and they adopt Rancho's outlook. Farhan decides to pursue his love of photography, while Raju takes an unexpected approach for an interview for a corporate job. He attends in plaster and a wheelchair and gives a series of non-conformal and frank answers. However, ViruS is unsympathetic and vows to make the final exam as hard as possible so that Raju is unable to graduate. Pia hears him and angrily confronts him, and when ViruS gives the same ruthless reply he gives to his students, she denounces him in the same way that Rancho did over the suicide of Lobo. Pia reveals that Viru's son and her brother was not killed in an accident but committed suicide in front of a train and left a letter because ViruS had forced him to pursue a career in engineering over his love for literature; ViruS always mentioned that he unsympathetically failed his son on the ICE entrance exams over and over to every new intake of ICE students. After this, Pia walks out on the family home, and takes ViruS's spare keys with her. She tells Rancho of the exam, and he and Farhan break into ViruS's office and steals the exam and give it to Raju, who with his new-found attitude, is unconcerned with the prospect of failing, and refuses to cheat and throws the paper away. However, ViruS catches the trio and expels them on the spot. However, they earn a reprieve when Viru's pregnant elder daughter Mona (Mona Singh) goes into labour at the same time. A heavy storm cuts all power and traffic, and Pia is still in self-imposed exile, so she instructs Rancho to deliver the baby in the college common room via VOIP, after Rancho restores power using car batteries and a power inverter that Rancho had dreamed up and ViruS had mocked. Rancho then delivers the baby with the help of a cobbled-together Vacuum extractor.

After the baby is apparently stillborn, Rancho resuscitates it. ViruS reconciles with Rancho and his friends and allows them to take their final exams and they graduate. Rancho comes first and is awarded ViruS's pen, which the professor had been keeping for decades before finding a brilliant enough student to gift it to.

Their story is framed as intermittent flashbacks from the present day, ten years after Chatur vowed revenge on Rancho for embarrassing him at the speech night and promised to become more successful than Rancho a decade later. Having lost contact with Rancho, who disappeared during the graduation party and went into seclusion, Raju and Farhan begin a journey to find him. They are joined by Chatur, now a wealthy and successful businessman, who joins them, brazenly confident that he has surpassed Rancho. Chatur is also looking to seal a deal with a famous scientist and prospective business associate named Phunsukh Wangdu. Chatur sees Wangdu, who has hundreds of patents, as his ticket to further social prestige. When they find Rancho's house, they walk into his father's funeral, and find a completely different Rancho Jaaved Jaffrey. After accusing the new man of stealing their friend's identity and profiting from his intellect, the host pulls a gun on them, but Farhan and Raju turn the tables by seizing the father's ashes and threatening to flush them down the toilet. The householder capitulates and says that their friend was a destitute servant boy who loved learning, while he, the real Rancho, was a lazy wealthy child who disliked study, so the family agreed to let the servant boy study in Rancho's place instead of labouring. In return, the real Rancho would pocket the qualifications and the benefits thereof, while the impersonator would sever all contact with the world and start a new life. The real Rancho reveals that his impersonator is now a schoolteacher in Ladakh.

Raju and Farhan then find Pia, and take her from her wedding day to Suhas by performing the same tricks with his material possessions, and having Raju turn up to the ceremony disguised as the groom and eloping with Pia in public. When they arrive in Ladakh, they see a group of enthusiastic Ladakhi children who are motivated by love of knowledge. Pia and the fake Rancho rekindle their love, while Chatur mocks and abuses Rancho the schoolteacher. He asks Rancho to sign on a DECLARATION OF DEFEAT document. And sees that Rancho is using the pen which ViruS had gifted him. Chatur snatches the pen from Rancho and starts to move back. When Rancho's friends ask what his real name is, he reveals that his real name is Phunsukh Wangdu and phones Chatur, who has turned his back, and tells him that he will not be able to sign the deal with him because he has his pen. He asks Chatur to turn around meet his prospective business partner. Chatur is horrified and falls to his knees, accepts his defeat and continues to plead his case with Phunsukh to establish the business relationship he was after.

Cast

Production

Filming

The shoot of the film with the supporting characters began on 28 July 2008. Hirani and his team left in late August for the shoot with the principal cast. The film was shot in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ladakh, Chail and Shimla. Aamir and rest of the cast began shooting in early September. Hirani planned to wrap up the film by December.^[6] The first scene was shot in an aircraft with Madhavan. From Mumbai, the crew and cast comprising Aamir and Kareena went to Ladakh for a 20-day schedule.^[7] The shooting also took place at the Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore for 33 days as a part of the second schedule of production.^[8]

According to Rajkumar Hirani, the biggest joke while filming was that he was called the most idiotic director, as he had asked the heroine of the film to gain weight and the heroes to lose weight.^[9]

Release

Box office

Worldwide the film has grossed roughly 4 Billion, it did net business of 2.024 billion in India, equating to roughly 3.23 billion gross , plus 0.72 billion overseas, giving a gross worldwide total of roughly 4 billion.

India

3 Idiots broke all box office records upon release. In its four-day first weekend, the film netted 380 million, and broke the record held by Ghajini for the first weekend collections. By the first week, the film netted 790.5 million, again breaking the box office record held by Ghajini. At the end of its theatrical run in India, it broke all box office records for Indian box office collections, and is the first Bollywood film to cross the 2 billion mark in India itself. Currently, it is the highest-grossing Bollywood film according to net collections, earning 2.024 billion (US$ 44,720,996).

Overseas

3 Idiots is the second highest-grossing Indian film in overseas markets after My Name is Khan.^[10] It set record collections in territories such as USA, Australia, Fiji and some African territories, but performed comparatively underwhelmingly in the UK. In the United States, the film earned $6.5 million since its opening.^[1][11] Overall, it is currently the second highest-grossing film in overseas markets. It has collected US$ 15.50 million (INR 72 crores) since its opening.^[10]

Critical reception

3 Idiots received generally positive reviews. Subhash K. Jha (film critic and author of The Essential Guide to Bollywood) states: "It's not that 3 Idiots is a flawless work of art. But it is a vital, inspiring and life-revising work of contemporary art with some heart imbued into every part. In a country where students are driven to suicide by their impossible curriculum, 3 Idiots provides hope. Maybe cinema can't save lives. But cinema, sure as hell, can make you feel life is worth living. 3 Idiots does just that, and much more. The director takes the definition of entertainment into directions of social comment without assuming that he knows best."^[12] Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave it four and a half stars and suggests that, "The film is a laugh riot, despite being high on fundas [...] Hirani carries forward his simplistic `humanism alone works' philosophy of the Lage Raho Munna Bhai series in 3 Idiots too, making it a warm and vivacious signature tune to 2009. The second half of the film does falter in parts, specially the child birth sequence, but it doesn't take long for the film to jump back on track." ^[13] Mayank Shekhar of the Hindustan Times gave the film three and a half out of four stars and comments that this "this is the sort of movie you’ll take home with a smile and a song on your lips." ^[14] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 3 Idiots four and a half out of five stars and states: "On the whole, 3 Idiots easily ranks amongst Aamir, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra's finest films. Do yourself and your family a favour: Watch 3 Idiots. It's emotional, it's entertaining, it's enlightening. The film has tremendous youth appeal and feel-good factor to work in a big way." ^[15] Kaveree Bamzai of India Today gave 3 Idiots five stars and argues that "it's a lovely story, of a man from nowhere who wanted to learn, told like a fairy tale, with the secret heart carrying its coded message of setting all of us free." ^[16]

Other critics gave the film a mixed review. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the film three out of five stars and states: "Going home after watching 3 Idiots I felt like I'd just been to my favorite restaurant only to be a tad under-whelmed by their signature dish. It was a satisfying meal, don't get me wrong, but not the best meal I'd been expecting." ^[17] Raja Sen of Rediff gave the film two out of five stars and states: "Rajkumar Hirani's one of the directors of the decade, a man with immense talent and a knack for storytelling. On his debut, he hit a hundred. With his second, he hit a triple century. This time, he fishes outside the offstump, tries to play shots borrowed from other batters, and hits and misses to provide a patchy, 32*-type innings. It's okay, boss, *chalta hai*. Even Sachin has an off day, and we still have great hope." ^[18] This film is going to be remade in both Telugu and Tamil.^[19]

Awards

2010 Star Screen Awards

• Best Film - Rajkumar Hirani
• Best Director - Rajkumar Hirani
• Best Popular Actress - Kareena Kapoor
• Best Villan - Boman Irani
• Best Comedian - Omi Vaidya
• Best Screenplay - Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra
• Best Dialogue - Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani
• Best Editing - Rajkumar Hirani
• Best Choreography - Bosco-Caesar - Zoobi Doobi
• Most Promising Newcomer – Male - Omi Vaidya^[20][21]

2010 Filmfare Awards

• Best Film - Vidhu Vinod Chopra
• Best Director - Rajkumar Hirani
• Best Supporting Actor - Boman Irani
• Best Dialogue - Raj Kumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra
• Best Story - Abhijat Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani
• Best Screenplay - Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra

2010 Max Stardust Awards

• Readers Choice Awards for Star Of The Year (Female) - Kareena Kapoor
• Readers Choice Awards for Best Film Of The Year - Drama - Rajkumar Hirani

2010 IIFA Awards^[22]

• Best Film - 3 Idiots
• Best Direction - Rajkumar Hirani
• Best Story - Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra
• Best Supporting Actor - Sharman Joshi
• Best Actress - Kareena Kapoor
• Best Actor in a negative role - Boman Irani
• Best Lyricist - Swanand Kirkire
• Best Singer Male - Shaan - Behti Hawa Sa Tha Wo
• Best Cinematography - C. K. Muraleedharan, ISC
• Best Screenplay - Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani & Vidhu Vinod Chopra
• Best Dialogue - Rajkumar Hirani & Abhijat Joshi
• Best Editing - Rajkumar Hirani
• Best Sound Recording - Bishwadeep Chatterjee & Nihal Ranjan Samal
• Best Song Recording - Bishwadeep Chatterjee & Sachin K Sanghvi
• Best Sound Re-Recording - Anup Dev
• Best Background Score - Sanjay Wandrekar,Atul Raninga & Shantanu Moitra

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is composed by Shantanu Moitra with lyrics penned by Swanand Kirkire.

3 Idiots
Soundtrack by Shantanu Moitra
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	T-Series
Producer	Shantanu Moitra
Professional reviews
Bollywood Hungama link

Tracklist

Controversy: Adaptation from book

Prior to the release of the film director Rajkumar Hirani commented on the relationship between Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat and 3 Idiots stating:

Chetan gave me this book to read and I wanted to make a film on it. But I knew right from the start that I could not make a film completely on the book, as it was very anecdotal and a film needs a plot. So I had decided to rewrite it in a screenplay format. You'll see that the film is very different from the book. After I wrote the script, I called Chetan and narrated it to him. I told him that if he did not like the script, I would stop the project. But he was okay with it.^[23]

The day after the film opened, Chetan also noted:

Initially I did sit down with Raju and Abhijat while they were deciding to make a film based on '5 Point Someone'. I even went to IIT with Abhijat a couple of times. But it was just not possible for me to be involved at every stage of the screenplay writing process since I was in Hong Kong at that time, working full time and busy writing other books. Moreover, Abhijat is based in USA, Raju was in the US for quite a while working on the screenplay but it was not practical for me to do that [...] The film retains the soul of the book. 3 Idiots is different from the book but at the same time it does borrow many things from the book. The core theme and message of the film is coming from the book itself. And that's why the makers have officially credited the film as 'Based on a novel by Chetan Bhagat.'^[24]

A controversy developed a few days after the release, however, over the fact that Chetan's credit, "Based on the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat" appeared in the closing credits rather than in the opening ones.^[25] At that time, Bhagat stated that he "was expecting an opening credit and I was quite surprised on not seeing it. They had bought the rights, made the payment and committed to a credit in the contract. It’s there, but it’s not about it being there, it’s about the placement and the prominence."^[26] In a 31 December 2009 blog post on his personal website, Bhagat stated that he was told the movie was only 2-5% based on the book, but when he saw it, he felt that it was 70% of the book. He also argued that he was misled by the makers of the film, though he noted, that "this has nothing to do with Mr. Aamir Khan [...] I am a big fan of Aamir and he has made my story reach people. However, he was told by the makers not to read the book, and he hasn’t. Thus, he cannot comment on the issue in a meaningful manner." ^[27]

A few people responded to Chetan's statements. According to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), during a press conference with reporters producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra "clarified that in the agreement between the producer and Bhagat, it was clearly mentioned that the author’s name would be put in the closing credits." IANS also reported that Chopra "lost his cool" and "asked a reporter to shut up after being questioned whether his hit 3 Idiots was lifted from author Chetan Bhagat’s book Five Point Someone."^[28] Chopra later apologized, stating: "I really think I’m silly. I was provoked, but I shouldn’t have done this. I saw myself on TV and saw how I was shouting ‘shut up, shut up’ like an animal. I told myself — ‘what nonsensical behaviour’."^[29] Aamir Khan also responded to these claims.^[25][30]Rajkumar Hirani stated that "We have officially bought the rights for the film. We drew a contract with him and it clearly mentions about the position of his credit. With open eyes he had seen the contract, consulted his lawyer and signed the agreement [...] In the contract, we have said that the title would be given in the rolling credits. We haven't changed the font size. We haven't increased the speed of the title. It's exactly there where it was agreed to be." ^[31] Chetan Bhagat later apologized stating, "I definitely do not have anything against team 3 Idiots. I may have some issues on the mistake they may have made but nothing about their personality or the kind of people they are. I apologise to their families if there was any distress caused to them. I also want to thank all my fans, who stood by me but I don't want them to turn against anyone especially Aamir."^[32]

See also

• List of highest-grossing Bollywood films

References

External links

• Official website
• Official trailers
• 3 Idiots at the Internet Movie Database
• 3 Idiots at Rotten Tomatoes
• 3 Idiots at Box Office Mojo
• 3 Idiots at Bollywood Hungama