Aamir Khan became ‘extremely competitive’ during Scrabble game, would beat IIM students in chess during 3 Idiots shoot: Omi Vaidya

Actor Omi Vaidya, known for his turn as Chatur Ramalingam in 3 Idiots, recently shared some behind-the-scenes anecdotes from his time on the sets of the film. He recalled playing Scrabble with an ‘extremely competitive’ Aamir Khan and how the superstar would often invite the cast to hang out post-shoot at the IIM Bangalore campus. During an interaction on the YouTube channel Enigmatic Horizon, Omi revealed that the cast of 3 Idiots stayed at the IIM Bangalore campus during the shooting of the movie. He said, “I was a no-name actor on this film. So, I didn’t think I would hang out with these people and that I would be kept separate. The good hotels were one hour away from IIM Bangalore, so Aamir suggested that we stay in the faculty residences of the college that were empty. We all had our own rooms and bathrooms, but it was like living in a dorm. Every night, Aamir’s assistant would come and ask us if we wanted to hang out with him. I was surprised because I am not from there, I don’t speak the language, I am not from Bollywood. We would talk about philosophy and play some board games.” Omi Vaidya shared how Aamir Khan got extremely competitive while playing Scrabble during the film’s Ladakh shoot. He recalled, “Once, when we were in a village in Ladakh, we were playing a board game as there was nothing to do. We would get one hour of electricity in a day. We would eat Maggi because there was nothing else to eat. We were living in tiny rooms of the biggest house in the village. At that time, Kareena was also shooting with us, and Saif had come to visit her. Somebody had brought Scrabble with them, and I think I was playing with Madhavan, Aamir, and maybe Kareena or Saif. I have a very good English vocabulary, so I put down a word that nobody knew, and they challenged me, but it was a word. As soon as I went to first place, you could see on Aamir’s face, he became extremely competitive and did not want to lose. By the end, he won by one point.” He added, “He was competitive but in a good way. He would play chess with these brilliant IIM students and beat them also. He was very competitive and focused.” Though Omi Vaidya spent a lot of time with Aamir Khan and other cast members, he would often isolate himself before a scene that required him to be rude to them. “I didn’t get friendly with all the other characters because they were my enemies in the film. I stayed separate, especially if I had a scene with them where I had to be really mean and angry with them,” he said. 3 Idiots was directed by Rajkumar Hirani and co-written by Abhijat Joshi. It starred Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi in the titular roles, while Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, and Omi Vaidya appeared in pivotal roles.