Just when the internet thought the “who inspired Phunsukh Wangdu” saga had fizzled out, Sonam Wangchuk revived it — this time with a punchline sharp enough to trend on its own.
The engineer-turned-education reformer, whose real-life innovations in Ladakh became the emotional backbone of Rajkumar Hirani’s superhit Bollywood film ‘3 Idiots’, finally broke his silence after Aamir Khan flatly denied that the character was based on him. Aamir’s denial came days after his own co-star, Omi Vaidya, publicly credited Wangchuk as the inspiration — a claim Aamir dismissed, insisting neither he, Hirani, nor writer Abhijat Joshi even knew Wangchuk existed at the time.
Also read: Nepal floods: 28 Indian tourists saved from death by a brief tea break, delayed visa; toll hits 734
That’s when an old video resurfaced, showing Aamir attentively watching a Wangchuk lecture years before the film’s release — contradicting what he said.
Rather than issue a dry rebuttal, Wangchuk chose comic timing over confrontation. Speaking on Prakhar Gupta’s podcast, he suggested Aamir’s memory lapse might have a cinematic explanation: the actor, he noted, was seen in the footage still dressed as Ghajini — the character famously cursed with short-term memory loss. Perhaps, Wangchuk joked, that condition had quietly followed Aamir off-set, erasing all recollection of their meeting within fifteen minutes.
It’s a wonderfully self-aware jab — using Aamir’s own filmography as the punchline to question his denial, without ever raising his voice or making outright accusations. Fans and film buffs online have called it the perfect “tit-for-tat” — witty, non-confrontational, yet impossible to ignore.
Whether or not Aamir formally acknowledges the resemblance, Wangchuk’s response has done what few celebrity clapbacks manage: it settled the debate with humour rather than hostility, while still landing the point. The optics, at least for now, favour Wangchuk — a man who turned a movie-referencing joke into a masterclass in comebacks.
Also read: Tied up and set ablaze, Chandigarh influencer Manjeet Kaur dies after 54 days of suffering
As this story keeps spreading, one thing is clear: people are still curious about who really inspired 3 Idiots — and they’re eager for the next round of this back-and-forth. 
