Aamir Khan Expects Final 3 Idiots Sequel Script Within Weeks as Hirani Continues Writing

A return to Rancho moves closer to a script reading

Aamir Khan expects Rajkumar Hirani to narrate the final version of a proposed 3 Idiots sequel within weeks, giving fans a concrete next step for a project that remains at the writing stage. Speaking at the Singapore International Film Festival on October 22, Khan said he hoped to hear the screenplay after returning to Mumbai.

The update came during a two-hour conversation at Marina Bay Sands, where Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Chan presented Khan with the festival's Screen Icon Award. Singapore comedian and host Rishi Budhrani moderated the discussion, which covered the sequel, Khan's career choices and the family time he says he lost during decades of work.

Khan, who played Rancho in the 2009 film, described the expected script narration in hopeful rather than definite terms:

Well, I'm not allowed to say a lot. I think I can say this much, that yes, Raju is working on the script. In fact, hopefully once I'm back in the next couple of weeks, he's going to narrate the final version to me. So, fingers crossed.

Budhrani said Khan had called Hirani in his presence the previous day to ask permission to share the development. The director agreed, although he missed the first call because Khan had changed his phone number.

The immediate milestone is therefore a meeting about the screenplay. A narration is a session in which a filmmaker presents the written story to an actor, allowing them to discuss its characters, scenes and direction before production moves ahead.

What has been confirmed about production?

Hirani is writing the sequel, and Khan has already heard an earlier version of the story. No official shooting schedule or release date has been announced. Suggestions that filming could begin around April 2027 remain unconfirmed.

Khan had previously credited Hirani and writer Abhijat Joshi with developing what he called a beautiful story. He expressed enthusiasm about returning as Phunsukh Wangdu, the character better known to his college friends and audiences as Rancho.

Earlier claims that the screenplay had been completed now sit alongside more recent comments describing continued work. A December 9, 2025 report said Hirani had locked the script, while Hirani himself said in September 2026 that the writing was continuing. Khan's Singapore remarks point to a hoped-for final narration as the next step.

For audiences waiting to buy a ticket, the practical position is straightforward: the filmmakers are discussing a story and its script, with the production timetable still to follow.

How far into the characters' future will it go?

Hirani has said the proposed sequel follows the characters beyond their student years. In comments published on September 2, 2026, he described a story set 20 years later. Khan had earlier described a gap of 10 years, while the December 2025 account put the story 15 years after the original film's climax.

The shared idea across those descriptions is a reunion with older characters whose lives have moved beyond engineering college. Hirani said the story concerns what happens to them later in life, shifting the focus from student pressures to the people they become.

Hirani, the original film's director and a writer of the sequel, put that change simply:

It's not about the students; it's about 20 years later ab kya hota hai unki life main (It's not about the students; it's about what happens in their lives 20 years later).

Who could return to the cast?

Aamir Khan, R Madhavan and Sharman Joshi played the three central friends, Rancho, Farhan and Raju. Kareena Kapoor Khan played Pia, while Boman Irani portrayed the college authority figure Viru Sahastrabuddhe, known as Virus.

Hirani has said the casting will be the same. That points towards a reunion of familiar performers, while an earlier account specifically named Khan, Kapoor Khan, Madhavan and Joshi as expected to return. Detailed casting announcements have yet to follow.

The original film ended with Pia, Farhan and Raju finding Rancho at a school in Leh, Ladakh. Their reunion resolved the search that ran through the film, while leaving room for a later story about where their separate lives might take them.

Khan has said the proposed sequel retains the first film's humour. Specific scenes and the central conflict have not been disclosed, leaving the older characters, rather than a detailed plot, as the clearest outline of the project.

How the sequel discussion has developed

The public updates show a project moving through repeated rounds of writing. The dates also help explain why an early claim of a finished script differs from the language Khan and Hirani have used more recently.

• 2009: 3 Idiots was released, directed by Rajkumar Hirani and written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi.
• December 9, 2025: A report described the sequel script as locked and said four principal actors were expected to return.
• September 2, 2026: Hirani's comments described writing still in progress and a story about the characters 20 years later.
• October 22, at the Singapore festival conversation: Khan said he hoped Hirani would narrate the final version after his return to Mumbai within the next couple of weeks.

The December account also said Khan and Hirani had paused a planned Dadasaheb Phalke biopic because they were unhappy with its script. Khan's Singapore comments concentrated on the 3 Idiots screenplay rather than laying out how the sequel would fit around his other commitments.

Why Hirani says the story comes first

Hirani has explained that the sequel grew out of another story his team was developing. They had not started by trying to continue 3 Idiots; during the writing, they felt the idea could fit those characters.

The director said the project would move ahead only when the team believed the story worked and deserved to be told. He compared that process with Lage Raho Munna Bhai, which also developed from an idea that was not initially conceived as a sequel.

Khan's reflections in Singapore offered a parallel explanation of his own approach. After Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak became a hit in 1988, he signed roughly nine or 10 films within six months. Most failed, and he recalled becoming deeply unhappy with his decisions.

Khan said he then set himself a rule: he would accept a film only when he believed in its script, director and producer. That principle was tested when filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt offered him a project during a difficult period in his career. Khan disliked the script and declined after a sleepless night.

Khan, explaining why that refusal mattered to him, said:

Had I compromised that day... I think my entire career would have been a series of compromises.

Bhatt later directed Khan in Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin in 1991 and Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke in 1993. Khan described the earlier refusal as a decision that gave him confidence to stand by his judgment.

Why 3 Idiots travelled beyond India

3 Idiots followed three engineering students dealing with competition, parental expectations and an education system that rewarded memorising answers. Its friendships and comedy carried a serious argument about allowing young people to discover what they do well.

Khan told the Singapore audience that the film helped introduce him to viewers in China. He credited copies passed around by young people with encouraging audiences to seek out his other films.

Khan, discussing how those audiences first encountered his work, said:

My popularity in China is thanks to piracy.

He also said he did not support piracy. Khan attributed the deeper connection to a shared emotional response among Indian and Chinese audiences, recalling that watching Dangal in a Chinese cinema felt like watching it in India.

The sequel would therefore return to characters familiar to audiences well beyond Hindi cinema's home market. Hirani's proposed move into their later lives gives that reunion a different setting from the classrooms and examinations that shaped the original.

Family time changes Khan's relationship with work

Khan became emotional when discussing the personal cost of his career. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he said, he realised how much time had passed while he remained absorbed in films and how much of his children's lives he had missed.

An audience member brought him tissues as he paused. Khan said he had deliberately made more time for family and close friends over the previous four years.

Khan, reflecting on when that realisation arrived, said:

I'm so glad that this thought occurred to me when I was 56 and not when I was 86.

He also described switching off his phone and leaving apps after finding that scrolling could consume three hours at a time. He worried that constant stimulation left younger people little space for boredom, reflection and imagination.

His remarks placed the sequel update within a broader account of how he now spends his time. Films remain central to his life, while family and close relationships have become a deliberate part of his routine.

Other projects and the work behind the films

Khan offered a shorter update on another possible comedy sequel. Asked about returning to the world of the 1994 film Andaz Apna Apna, he said director Rajkumar Santoshi was working on something, without giving further details.

The Singapore programme also looked back at Lagaan, the 2001 drama Khan produced and starred in. A screening scheduled for October 23 marked its 25th anniversary, connecting the festival's recognition of his career with his first film as a producer.

Khan used the conversation to describe the less visible work behind filmmaking. He said he holds between 50 and 60 test screenings with 25 people each, using small audiences to assess how a film plays before release. He recalled that the first such screening of Taare Zameen Par went badly.

For smaller productions unable to afford his usual fee, Khan said he sometimes takes a share of later earnings instead. That arrangement reduces the producer's initial cost and ties his payment more closely to the film's financial performance.

Khan also discussed artificial intelligence as another tool for making films, while warning about job losses among skilled workers such as carpenters and painters who build sets. Accepting his award, he stressed the collective nature of filmmaking and shared the recognition with the writers, directors and crews behind his work.

Key Points

• Aamir Khan hopes to hear Rajkumar Hirani's final 3 Idiots sequel script within weeks of returning to Mumbai.
• The project remains at the writing stage, with no official shooting schedule or release date.
• Hirani has said the casting will be the same and the story follows the characters beyond college.
• Descriptions of the time jump have ranged from 10 to 20 years, with Hirani giving the 20-year figure in September 2026.
• Khan shared the update while receiving the Singapore International Film Festival's Screen Icon Award on October 22.
• The festival conversation also covered his family priorities, filmmaking decisions and the international audience for 3 Idiots.