IMDB has voted Raj Kumar Hirani's 3 Idiots as the most influential Indian film of this millennium.
The 2009 blockbuster, starring Aamir Khan, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor and Boman Irani, was well reviewed and indeed, an inspiring and life-revising work of contemporary art with heart.
Madhavan played Farhan Qureshi, a student with a passion for photography, who pursues engineering just to please his father.
He remembers the film with fondness and tells Subhash K Jha, "Gosh, the most influential Indian film of this century? Wow! It is deeply flattering and an honour indeed. I am so happy to be in two films that have made lasting impact on the audience: Rang De Basanti and 3 Idiots."
Madhavan remembers shooting for 3 Idiots with an injured knee.
"During the entire shooting, I was wearing a protection bandage," he says.
"Just days before the shooting was to start, I got a torn ligament while playing badminton with Prakash Padukone. Luckily for me, Raju Hirani didn't drop me. Instead, he wrote the injured knee and protection bandage into the script."
Incidentally, the inspiration to play badminton to stay fit -- they were playing college students at 40-plus in 3 Idiots -- came to Madhavan from his co-star Aamir Khan.
"It was a pleasure working with Aamir," he says.
"Such a healthy atmosphere during the shooting, we never knew when the shoot started and when it ended. It is so important to have co-stars who don't think about their own performance only while creating something special."
3 Idiots has been in the news recently after education reformer Sonam Wangchuk, on whom Aamir's Phunsukh Wangdu character was based, was arrested.
Photograph curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
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