Days after Bollywood actor Aamir Khan claimed that he did not know climate activist Sonam Wangchuk during the making of 3 Idiots, the Ladakh-based activist has responded to the actor’s remarks.
Wangchuk claims that several old videos of himself meeting Aamir have resurfaced, and jokingly suggested that the actor may have forgotten the encounter because he was deeply immersed in his Ghajini character, who suffered from short-term memory loss.
The activist made the remarks while speaking on YouTuber Prakhar Gupta’s podcast. His comments came in the context of his hunger strike during the student protests. Referring to an old video of Aamir listening to his speech while dressed as his Ghajini character, Wangchuk said the actor may have forgotten the encounter after 15 minutes.
Wangchuk also shared a video from a 2008 event attended by Aamir. At the event, Wangchuk was honoured with the Real Heroes Award for his contribution to education in Ladakh. The video shows Aamir listening to Wangchuk’s speech.
Speaking on Prakhar Gupta’s podcast, Sonam Wangchuk said, “Quite a few videos have surfaced showing him watching my speech in his Ghajini outfit. So perhaps he was in the Ghajini outfit and may have had short-term memory loss. Maybe he forgot 15 minutes later, so I’m not surprised. Otherwise, we had met at length and in great detail. We’ve heard that he gets very deeply immersed in his characters, so perhaps he had immersed himself so deeply in Ghajini that he even forgot the award ceremony he attended, where I was receiving the award.”
Wangchuk further said that he and Aamir had a lengthy meeting during which they discussed several ideas. He clarified that he would not describe 3 Idiots as being based on his life or as his biography but maintained that the film was inspired by him.
Wangchuk claims CJP founders have political ambitions
Wangchuk also spoke about the founders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and their alleged political ambitions.
The 59-year-old said that when he joined the CJP protest, several critics told him that CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke had previously worked with the Aam Aadmi Party. However, Wangchuk said this did not concern him, as he saw nothing wrong with having worked with a political party in the past.
He said he came to believe that the CJP founders had political ambitions after closely observing them during the Jantar Mantar protest in Delhi. However, Wangchuk stressed that he did not consider such ambitions to be inherently negative.
"As far as their political ambitions are concerned, I think they do have political ambitions. I have assessed them quite closely, and I believe they certainly have political ambitions. And perhaps there is nothing wrong with that either. They did not tell me that they have political ambitions. This is my assessment of them. They are not saints who do not want anything out of this. I am sure there are political ambitions, and there is nothing wrong with that," Wangchuk said in a podcast with Prakhar Gupta.
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Wangchuk said he had also urged the CJP founders to ensure that the protest platform was not used to advance the political agenda of any particular party. He added that he was pleased that they adhered to the principle.
“Throughout the time I was on that stage, I kept telling them that any of you may have political ambitions, and it is actually a good thing to have young and emerging leaders. But maintain the sanctity of this platform. Keep it neutral, apolitical and a pressure group, because that way you will be able to achieve much more,” Wangchuk added.