Aamir Khan has found himself at the center of a controversy on social media following his recent comments about the engineer and education reformer Sonam Wangchukwho is currently on a prolonged hunger strike demanding constitutional guarantees for Ladakh.During a recent media interaction, Aamir was asked about Wangchuk’s ongoing fast. Since Aamir Rancho’s character in ‘3 Idiots’ was long believed to be inspired by Sonam Wangchuk, the actor’s response drew widespread attention. Aamir denied meeting Wangchuk before the making of the 2009 blockbuster, claiming that neither he nor the film’s writers were familiar with him at the time.Aamir also said at an event, “Recently I saw a video of Chatur (Omi Vaidya) and he said that. But he is wrong. Maybe that’s what Chatur was thinking, but I want to tell you that neither Raju nor Abhijat (Rajkumar HiraniAbhijat Joshi) who are the two writers, we didn’t know about Mr. we sound However, what Mr. Sonam is doing a good job anyway. It doesn’t have to be based on a 3 idiots character because we respect him and the work he does. I wanted to share this from a real point of view.” However, social media users have now questioned this claim by resurfacing an old video which appears to place Aamir and Wangchuk at the same event months before ‘3 Idiots’ went on floors. The viral clip comes from one of Sonam Wangchuk’s TED talks, where she recalled meeting Aamir Khan and even played footage of an award ceremony in 2008 where she received the ‘Real Heroes’ award for her contributions to education and social development. In the audience, Aamir Khan can be seen sitting next to his then wife Kiran Rao.While accepting the honour, Wangchuk praised Aamir’s film ‘Taare Zameen Par’ for highlighting problems in the education system. He also suggested an idea for a future film that would focus on improving school education in remote border regions like Siachen. The picture shows Aamir and Kiran smiling and nodding as they listened to his speech.Timeline has become one of the main talking points online. The award ceremony took place in 2008, and Aamir is seen sporting the clean-shaven ‘Ghajini’ look, which reports suggest he adopted around March of that year for the film’s release. Meanwhile, principal photography for ‘3 Idiots’ began later in July 2008 with supporting actors, while Aamir and kareena kapoor joined the schedule in Shimla and Ladakh during August and September. Considering Aamir’s reputation for completely immersing himself in his roles, many believe that he wouldn’t have shot ‘3 Idiots’ while keeping the ‘Ghajini’ hairstyle.Although Aamir took a brief break from the shooting of ‘3 Idiots’ to promote ‘Ghajini’, which released in December 2008, he had already transitioned to the shorter hairstyle seen in ‘3 Idiots’ during the promotional campaign. The shooting of the Rajkumar Hirani directorial was finally completed in February 2009.Based on this sequence of events, many online users are arguing that the award function attended by both Aamir Khan and Sonam Wangchuk took place much before the completion, and even the principal shooting of ‘3 Idiots’. This has fueled speculations about Aamir’s recent statement that he did not know Wangchuk before the film.Despite the controversy, Aamir expressed concern for Wangchuk’s health during the recent interaction and praised his contributions to society. However, her claim that she did not know Wangchuk before ‘3 Idiots’ has reignited the debate on social media, with many users citing the resurfaced footage from 2008 as evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile, amid Aamir’s statement, his ex-wife Kiran Rao has come out in support of Wangchuk.