3 Idiots
Poster of the movie
Directed by	Rajkumar Hirani
Produced by	Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Written by	Screenplay: Abhijat Joshi Rajkumar Hirani Novel: Chetan Bhagat
Starring	Aamir Khan R. Madhavan Sharman Joshi Kareena Kapoor Boman Irani Omi Vaidya Parikshit Sahni Javed Jaffrey
Music by	Shantanu Moitra
Distributed by	B.K Films Industries
Release date(s)	25 December 2009 (India) 23 December 2009 (USA, UK)
Running time	164 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	$ 7.5 Million
Gross revenue	$ 39 Million (First 8 days) [1]

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

3 Idiots also expected to be the first Indian film to be officially released on You Tube, within 12 weeks of releasing in theatres.^[2] It is also Bollywood's biggest blockbuster with the biggest opening of all time.^[3]

[edit] Plot

Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi), and Rancho or Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad (Aamir Khan) are three engineering students who share a room in a hostel at the fictional ICE, one of the best colleges in India (modeled after IIT).

Their story is framed as a flashback from the present day, ten years after graduation. Having lost contact with Rancho who disappeared during the graduation party, Raju and Farhan begin a journey to find him. They are joined by Chatur, now a wealthy and successful businessman, who joins them to settle a bet with Rancho after Rancho had changed his Teacher's day speech which was embarrassing. Chatur also wants to meet a scientist named Phunsukh Wangdu with whom he has to sign a deal. From Chatur they also come to know that Rancho is in Shimla.

While Farhan and Raju are mediocre students from modest backgrounds, Rancho is a wealthy genius who studies for the sheer joy of it. Yet it is precisely his passion for knowledge and his gift for creating machines that incurs the wrath of Professor Viru Sahastrabudhhe (ViruS) (Boman Irani). Threatened by Rancho's talent, ViruS labels him an "idiot" and attempts on a number of occasions to destroy his friendship with Farhan and Raju. In contrast, ViruS’ model student is Chatur Ramalingam or "Silencer," (Omi Vaidya) a geek who lives by conforming to the expectations of the system, mindless cramming, and unethical means of destroying his competition. Meanwhile, Rancho also falls in love with ViruS' pre-med daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor) when he and his "buddies" (Raju and Farhan) "crash" her sister's wedding. He advises Pia not to marry her fiance because her fiance is too money minded. Pia later in front of Rancho breaks her engagement and falls in love with Rancho. In between Pia and Rancho's love story, Rancho saves Raju's father from dying just a day before Rancho's exams. The next day, all the three friends write their examination. But when the results are out, Raju and Farhan are shocked. Not because they secured the lowest marks. But because Rancho stood first. Even ViruS and Chatur are shocked. A few days later, ViruS places a bet with Rancho where ViruS will shave off his mustache if either Raju or Farhan get a job before graduation.

Cut to present, the three men reach Shimla but are shocked to find out that Rancho had taken someone else identity. The real Rancchoddas was poor in studies and his father, a wealthy man had sent his gardener's son to school and college with his son's name so that his son could get a degree in return. The real Rancchoddas then gives the address of Rancho who now lives in Leh, Ladakh.

Back to the past, Rancho in a drunk state confesses his love to Pia. But Farhan and Raju, urinate on the door of ViruS's house. They escape but ViruS does see Raju. The next day he threatens Raju that either he leaves the college or stands witness against Rancho. Raju unable to bear with either of the situation offered to him tries to commit suicide by jumping from ViruS's office. He survives but is nearly paralyzed. He recovers and even gets a job. There, Farhan tells his father that he wants to become a wildlife photographer and his father finally agrees. ViruS who is now without his mustache, seeks revenge by setting a tough paper. Pia gives the duplicate keys to Rancho and he and Farhan steal the paper from ViruS's office. ViruS comes to know and throws them out of the college. Pia protests and tells ViruS that her brother (ViruS's son) had committed suicide because he couldn't take the pressure of examinations. Pia's elder sister who is pregnant goes into labor pain and Rancho with help of his friends and Pia who is in hospital deliver the baby on campus. ViruS forgives Rancho, Farhan and Raju.

Cut to present, Farhan and Raju convince Pia to leave her wedding function and come along with them to meet Rancho. They do finally meet Rancho who now runs a science school in Leh. Chatur is very happy that he's finally beaten Rancho but is shocked to know that Rancho's real name is Phunsukh Wangdu, the scientist. The film ends with Pia and Phunsukh confessing their love for each other and Chatur asking for forgiveness.

[edit] Cast

• Aamir Khan as Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad (Rancho)/ Phunshukh Wangdu
• Kareena Kapoor as Pia Sahastrabudhhe
• R. Madhavan as Farhan Qureshi
• Sharman Joshi as Raju Rastogi
• Boman Irani as Viru Sahastrabudhhe (ViruS)
• Omi Vaidya as Chatur Ramalingam (Silencer)
• Parikshit Sahni as Mr Qureshi
• Javed Jaffrey as The real Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad
• Mona Singh as Mona Sahastrabudhhe (Pia's sister)
• Arun Bali as Shamaldas Chanchad
• Jayant Kripalani as Interviewer

[edit] Production

[edit] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] The shooting also took place at the Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore for 33 days as a part of the second schedule of production.^[6]

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.^[7]

[edit] Release

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[edit] Pre-release

In January 2009 Bollywood Hungama surveyed the most anticipated Bollywood films of the coming year.^[19]

[edit] Critical reception

3 Idiots received extremely positive reviews. Subhash K. Jha, film critic and author of The Essential Guide to Bollywood, states:

Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave it four and a half stars and suggests that:

Other critics gave the film a mixed review. In response to 2 stars given by Raja Sen of Rediff.com -- which said "This isn't a bad film, though. By which I mean it conjures up a few moments, it will doubtless make some people cry, and every now and then we glimpse some heart. Yet it hurts to see that this is traditional Bollywood masala schlock, with scenes calculated to tickle and to evoke sympathy. It's not awful at all, but since when did 'not bad' become good?" --- more than 2,000 responses were posted.^[22]. [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 favourite 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." ^[23] Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL India too criticized the length of the film. " A 20-reeler – ‘3 idiots’ is 3 hours long! By all standards that’s too long a time, especially when the audience has shrinking tolerance level and attention span. It could have easily been shorter had the director preferred editing out some scenes," he remarks.^[24] Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave 3 out of 5 star and criticized the movie saying "The emotional truth that shone through both the ‘Munnabhai’ movies doesn’t come through strongly enough in '3 Idiots'".Gupta further added "the artifice caused by a forty-something playing a twenty-something colours the film. Are there no capable twenty year olds in B town? ..."^[25].

[edit] Box office performance

3 Idiots is a All Time Blockbuster ^[26]. The film has opened with the most number of prints ever for a Hindi film.^[27] In India, 1,550 prints in over 1,760 screens and overseas 342 prints in over 366 screens. The film was released in over 40 countries. The paid previews of 3 Idiots itself garnered over Rs 9 crs gross worldwide,which is above Ghajini’s paid previews collection of Rs 7 crs gross worldwide. 3 Idiots' first weekend collection is Rs 93 crores gross worldwide through Sunday night which more than Ghajini’s collection.^[28]

[edit] Soundtrack

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

[edit] Tracklist

[edit] 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. He stated:

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.^[29]

The day after the film opened, Chetan also stated:

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.'^[30]

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.^[31] 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."^[32] 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." ^[33]

Vidhu Vinod Chopra ^[34] and Aamir Khan both responded to these claims.^[31][35]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." ^[36] Legal documents concerning the relationship between Bhagat and the filmmakers have been added to the Vinod Chopra Productions website as well. ^[37]

[edit] See also

• List of highest-grossing Bollywood films

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official trailers
• 3 Idiots at the Internet Movie Database
• 3-Idiots Glimpse