3 Idiots turns 15: Omi Vaidya aka Chatur gave up role in How I Met Your Mother for audition of Aamir Khan film, was pranked by Rajkumar Hirani

In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, he expresses, “It feels great, it doesn’t feel like that long. People keep watching that film and they keep it alive. Movies keep coming and going, but not with this one. I always knew it would be a good film, but never thought it would resonate with the audience 15 years later.”

‘I had watched 2-3 Hindi films in my entire life’

The actor begins to tell that he wasn’t really interested in doing 3 Idiots, but he got the offer nevertheless. “I was working with my Hollywood roles, on the development of The Office. They were looking for newcomers in America at that time. None of the roles were cast and half the script wasn’t even written, they were only looking for people, and American-Indian actors at that time. I was in India for a wedding, and one of my friends in Ohio said that I should audition as she was assisting the co-writer of the film, Abhijat Joshi, at that time. She asked me to go to their office in Bombay. I said that I had watched only 2-3 Hindi films my entire life, and I don’t think I have any interest in this,” he shares.

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Omi further adds, “I have always focused on American projects, never on Bollywood films. She said that you probably won’t get it but I am going to send your The Office stuff to them, let’s see what happens. Even my mother said that it’s a good experience to audition for a Bollywood film. When I went, they gave me Raju Rastogi’s lines. I sat there for about four hours, practicing two pages of lines. The casting director said you don’t speak the language, thanks for coming in, you can go. I never auditioned for the role.”

However, he was called back and was given Sanjay Dutt’s Lage Raho Munna Bhai‘s script this time. “But, they called me back again and said that we will give you a script which you can go home and practice. It’s from a movie called Lage Raho Munna Bhai. I hadn’t watched the movie, I knew nothing about it. But, the script was about Sanjay Dutt talking about injustice. I told them that I won’t be able to do justice to it, he is doing it so seriously. I’ll just have fun, like I don’t know what he is saying. I knew I won’t get the role and I was doing it for fun, so I was extremely confident in that audition. I was purposefully making mistakes. They were laughing, I left and went back to America, didn’t think about it at all,” he tells us.

‘Had to give up a role in How I Met Your Mother’

The 42-year-old had to decline a great offer in a famous Hollywood series to go for the next round of auditions. “Then, I almost got this role for How I met Your Mother. But, these guys also said that we liked your audition. That video has gone around and they all loved me, Aamir was cast by then. They asked me to come to New Mexico for another audition, I had to give up that very good call for HIMYM. After the audition, Raju called and said, ‘You are getting better at Hindi, don’t do better. We want your Hindi to be weak. Keep yourself away from it, don’t learn it’,” Omi reveals.

The actor finally decided to take up the role, going against his American agents. “I did many stereotypical roles in my Hollywood projects, I didn’t read the script but I knew it was going to be a decent role, so I thought I’ll do one Bollywood film in my life and this will be that. All my American agents thought that it was a terrible idea to break my career here and do that movie. I lost out on a lot of stuff here because of that, it was sort of the big Indian wave of projects here,” he shares, adding, “But, I really enjoyed doing that film. I had to lose weight, gain weight, shave my head so that I could look old, and many other adjustments to be made. I saw the script three days before the shoot. They did that on purpose because they wanted me to be raw with the language.”

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BTS of the iconic Chatur speech scene

Ask him about the shooting of Silencer’s famous Chamatkar (Balatkar) speech scene in the college, when he says the wrong one on stage, and he replies, “I never see the comedy in it, I even never tried to play up the comedy in the film. For me, it was just a tragic character that can’t speak Hindi well, that’s it. If he spoke Hindi properly, I don’t think he would be funny. When I saw the speech, I only thought about the lens of the character. For me, it’s a wonderful speech that he has written and he doesn’t know that the words have been changed. It’s his chance to shine, that’s how I read the script!”

However, he goes on to reveal that he always knew the meaning of the speech. “I speak Marathi, it was very easy to understand. But, my character doesn’t know it. There is a small rumour that I don’t know what I was saying, but that’s not true.” He continues addressing the jokes around it – “Memes are a part of the culture now and that’s cool. I live in America so I never really come across these things, but people do send it to me sometimes. I see them and it makes me feel happy about the potency of Chatur and how he is all over the place.”

A prank by Rajkumar Hirani

Omi also shares that the director Rajkumar Hirani pulled off a hilarious prank on him, on the first day of shooting 3 Idiots. “We were shooting the ragging scene on first day of shoot. I am a really dedicated actor, I trust my director. They said that I will wear the American flag underwear, but when it was time to shoot, they brought in a shiny gold thing. I was already uncomfortable wearing so little clothing and now it was a thong, but I wanted to be the best actor for my director,” he tells us.

The actor laughs and continues, “I just talked to Rajkumar and said, ‘I am not sure if it’s good for the character, I think the American one is a better idea’. He was like, ‘Oh no, that was just a joke. It’s funny that you were actually going to wear it’. It was Raju’s prank and everyone apparently knew about it.”

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Rajkumar Hirani’s unique filmmaking style

Omi opens up and says, “I have worked with a lot of directors and they seem very serious, stressed and focused while shooting. But with him, he was just so effortless. He seemed as if he was so prepared that he was able to relax. For making something so timeless, it seemed like an uncle who is having a good time, but very present. Chatting and having some tea, he even used to play badminton with Aamir in the morning. He also trusted his characters like he has cast the best people, he lets them do their work.”

How was the experience of working with the perfectionist Aamir Khan?

Calling him a “great actor”, he reveals that he never shied away from giving his suggestions. “Of all the actors, he was the one who gave the most suggestions. When we did rehearsals, he would have the most questions. That was great to have somebody so involved, not only with his role, with other’s roles as well. He didn’t want to change anything, but just to make the whole thing better. Many times, his suggestions weren’t used, other times they were very beneficial. He didn’t have any issue with them not going through, there was no ego involved. He was just interested in making sure that the movie came out well,” he ends.