Activist and environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk has responded to Aamir Khan’s recent claim that he and the makers of 3 Idiots did not know him while making the 2009 film. Wangchuk, who has himself previously said Phunsukh Wangdu was not entirely based on him, now says he had a “detailed meeting” with Khan before the film and jokes that the actor may have forgotten it.

“He was watching my speech in his Ghajini outfit. Maybe because of that he experienced short-term memory loss and forgot our meeting after 15 minutes,” he said, referring to the 2008 film where Khan’s character suffers from short-term memory loss.

“Perhaps he was too immersed in his Ghajini persona when he watched me receive an award at an event we both attended… We discussed a lot of ideas,” he said on Prakhar Gupta’s podcast.

As for the character of Wangdu, Wangchuk asserts he does not claim it was entirely modeled after him, but calls it an “influence or inspiration”.

He said, “Maybe he shared those ideas with his writers, who then modified the existing script. Perhaps he did it subconsciously, or the writers were unaware of where the ideas originated. Either way, I have no issue with it,” he said.

Wangchuk also responded to Salman Khan’s viral ‘it’s done bro’ tweet from July, when the actor asked him to end his strike. “Majbooriyan hoti hongi sabki. Aage peeche, daayen baayen dekhna padta hai. Lekin unhone kuch kaha uski main izzat karta hoon,” he said.

Phunsukh Wangdu, Khan’s character in 3 Idiots, has been popularly believed to have been inspired by Wangchuk. The debate resurfaced in July after actor Omi Vaidya, who played Chatur in the film, referred to Wangchuk as an inspiration while supporting his hunger strike.

Clarifying the connection at the London Indian Film Festival, Khan said, “No, that is not true actually. That is a misconception. I didn’t know about Mr Sonam at that time when we were doing the film, 3 Idiots... Neither Raju nor Abhijat [Rajkumar Hirani or Abhijat Joshi], who are the two writers, we didn’t know about Mr Sonam.”

However, the actor called Wangchuk an inspiration irrespective while wishing for his health.