Seventeen years after Rancho, Farhan, and Raju walked out of Imperial College of Engineering and into the cultural memory of an entire generation, Aamir Khan has confirmed what fans have been hoping and debating for years: the sequel to 3 Idiots is real, in active development, and he is in.
The confirmation came on April 28, in an interview with Amar Ujala during the promotional run for Ek Din, a film produced under Aamir’s banner, starring his son Junaid Khan alongside Sai Pallavi in her Hindi film debut. Asked about future projects, Aamir turned to the one that will have stopped a thousand conversations in their tracks. “At this moment, I think he is working on 3 Idiots 2. Yes. I have heard the story, and it has turned out very well. The script is still being worked on, but it is a very good story. It has the same kind of humour and is also a very unusual story.”
The sequel will explore the lives of Rancho, Farhan, and Raju nearly a decade after the events of the original film. The character of Phunsukh Wangdu, Aamir expressed excitement about returning to, calling the story “beautiful” and crediting Hirani and writer Abhijat Joshi for having “written and conceived it very well.”
The original 3 Idiots, released in December 2009, was a phenomenon by any measure. It created history as the first Indian film to cross the ₹200 crore mark at the box office and went on to become a cult classic, sparking nationwide conversations about India’s education system. Its central message that the pursuit of excellence is not the same as the pursuit of marks landed with a precision and warmth that made it one of the rare Bollywood films to have genuine and lasting cultural impact.
The confirmation ends a protracted cycle of speculation, denials, and semi-denials. As recently as December 2025, R. Madhavan had expressed scepticism, pointing to the age gap between the original cast and the college-age characters they played, and wryly concluding that a sequel “would be idiotic.” Aamir’s confirmation neatly resolves that concern the sequel’s 10-years-later structure means the characters are now the age their actors are, which is precisely what makes the conceit workable.
The original cast Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, and Kareena Kapoor Khan is expected to return, with makers also reportedly in search of a superstar to expand the franchise with a fourth lead. The working title circulating in industry circles is 4 Idiots, though that is subject to change.
Aamir also confirmed that his planned collaboration with Hirani on a biopic based on Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema has been put on hold due to script-related challenges, with both men committed to getting it right before going on floors. A third project also surfaced: reports suggest Aamir is in discussions to portray entrepreneur Ashneer Grover in a potential biopic a casting choice that, if confirmed, would represent one of the more audacious career pivots in recent Bollywood memory.
For now, though, all attention is on Rancho’s return. The script needs more work, by Aamir’s own admission but the story is locked, the director is committed, and the man who played Phunsukh Wangdu has heard it and loved it. In Bollywood, that is as close to a starting gun as it gets.
–Samuthiran
