While Aamir Khan is an extremely talented actor but he was faced by a challenge when he had to ‘look’ like he was in his 20s for his role in 3 Idiots. He had to work hard on looking, behaving and dressing like youngsters these days do. His inspirations were mostly his son Junaid’s friends.His character in the film, Rancho, is apparently based on his cousin Pablo, who is Mansoor Khan’s teenaged son. Aamir likes the way Pablo is so fidgety that he can’t stay still for a minute. He doesn’t stop to even talk.
Aamir’s wardrobe for the film was based on Ghajini director AR Murgadoss. The fact that Murgadoss always wears worn out clothes or T-shirts that are two sizes large for him was taken into consideration.
Aamir jokes that he had to first work hard to get eight packs for Ghajini and then lose them all to look lean for 3 Idiots. He also admits to borrowing some clothes from Murgadoss. He feels that it was most important to get into the character and feel young to pull it off well.