Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; December 25, 2019)

High on laugher, content, star value and the message it sends across, 3 Idiots remains one of the most relevant films of our times and even after a decade of its release. Revolving around the Indian education system, the 2009 film starred Aamir Khan as the quirky Rancho/Phunsukh Wangdu, who aims to prove that one needs to chase excellence, and success will follow. He locks horns with the ruthlessly competitive dean of his engineering college, Viru Sahastrabudhe played by actor Boman Irani.

Virus (as the 60-year-old is still referred to) is as far removed from Boman in real-life as it could. Rude, insensitive, arrogant — he is anything but this!

“The first scene I shot as Virus was in Shimla, when my daughter (played by Kareena Kapoor Khan) is getting married. The team had just had a harrowing escape from the blizzard in Leh-Ladakh. They were pretty shattered when I met them. Luckily, we could help them deal with the tension,” he says.

But that’s after Virus became a changed man. As for the original, mean character, he got to play it at IIM Bangalore, where the college scenes were shot. Reveals Boman, “Every morning, I’d get dressed in the velcro shirt, with the hook tie, even if I wasn’t shooting, and cycle around the campus. People didn’t recognise me and thought I was a professor. I’d bark and snarl at everybody, leaving them wondering, ‘Who the hell is this guy?’ I’d walk into any lecture, the professor would stop talking, thinking maybe I was a new appointee. I’d look around the room, say ‘Carry on’ and go. I just wanted to own the place! My character was one who had been there for 20-30 years. One masterstroke was that we all stayed in the campus, in the staff quarters. All the boys — Aamir, Chatur (played by Omi Vaidya) Sharman (Joshi) and Maddy (R Madhavan) felt part of it.”

Boman received acclaim upon its release, and the film ranks among the highest-grossers of Indian cinema. Though Boman expected the film to work, he didn’t have any idea about the cult status it would achieve. “I’m still surprised. When it released, we thought it’d be a nice film… I realised it had become big when I got calls from people who I hadn’t heard from in years, about the film. I was on a vacation, and when I returned, we went on a victory tour. We would stand on the terrace of the theatre, and there would be a sea of people on the streets! I never thought Virus would capture (attention),” he smiles.