The character of ‘Rancho’ is not inspired by Sonam Wangchuk: Director Rajkumar Hirani had told – got inspiration from FTII student

It has been more than 15 years since the film 3 Idiots was released. For many years, a claim has been repeatedly repeated that the film’s famous character Rancho alias Phunsukh Wangdu was inspired by education reformer Sonam Wangchuk. This has now been said so many times that many people have started accepting it as fact. However, after looking at the available records and statements of people associated with the film, many questions arise regarding this claim. What are the similarities between Rancho and Sonam Wangchuk? At first glance there are some similarities between the two. Both are engineers, associated with the field of education, run schools and have connections with Ladakh. In the film, Rancho’s real identity is shown as Phunsukh Wangdu, whose name also sounds similar to Sonam Wangchuk. However, in the main part of the story, life at Rancho looks completely different. In the film, he adopts the identity of the son of a rich family and studies in an engineering college. Its story revolves around friendship, studies, exams, hostel life and opposition to the education system. At the end of the film he is seen running a school in Ladakh. This part is considered to be the biggest reason for comparison with Sonam Wangchuk. Questions arise on the timeline. Investigation revealed that the script of 3 Idiots was registered with the Screenwriters Association on August 1, 2007. Available information suggests that Aamir Khan and Sonam Wangchuk met publicly for the first time in April 2008. If the script was already complete, the question arises whether the story written before the 2008 meeting could have been inspired by a later event. What did the writers say? The film’s writer Abhijat Joshi and director-co-writer Rajkumar Hirani have said in several interviews that the idea of ​​the character Rancho was inspired by a different incident. According to him, the story of a student of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) had impressed him. He had told that the student had reached the institute by adopting the identity of another student for the purpose of learning, not for a degree. The writers had also said that they had never met Sonam Wangchuk. Aamir has also been continuously saying that the character of Rancho was not based on the life of Sonam Wangchuk. Such a claim was not made in the promotion of the film. Nowhere in the film’s 2009 promotional campaign, trailer, press conference and interviews was Rancho mentioned as being based on Sonam Wangchuk. If such a claim was part of the film’s promotion, then clear records should have been found. No such evidence is found in available public material. Then how did this assumption come about? According to media reports, in some news in 2010, the similarity between Rancho and Sonam Wangchuk was discussed by the people of Ladakh. Initial reports described this as only a possibility. In later years many publications started referring to Sonam Wangchuk as the real-life Rancho. Over time this comparison was repeated in many news stories, social media posts and discussions. For this reason this notion gradually became widely accepted. Many questions still remain; clear answers to some questions have not yet emerged. Did the producer or writer meet Sonam Wangchuk before writing the film? Did he visit their school? Did any official promotion of the film in 2009 mention Rancho as being inspired by Sonam Wangchuk?



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