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3 Idiots
Chatur Ramalingam, a successful vice-president, reminds his old college rivals Farhan Qureshi and Raju Rastogi of a bet he made ten years earlier with their classmate, friend, and Chatur's nemesis, Ranchoddas "Rancho" Shamaldas Chanchad. Chatur has returned to India to close a deal with famous inventor Phunsukh Wangdu. The trio head to Shimla to find Rancho, recalling their days at the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) in Delhi.
At ICE, Rancho (from Shimla) was an unconventional student passionate about learning. He often clashed with the strict director, Dr. Viru "Virus" Sahastrabuddhe, who valued rote discipline over curiosity. When a classmate, Joy Lobo, is denied graduation for missing a project deadline (which Joy had missed due to his father suffering a stroke) and takes his own life, Rancho blames Virus's pressure-filled system. Virus dismisses him and later threatens to expel Farhan and Raju for associating with Rancho. That night, the trio visit Farhan and Raju's homes and witness the hardships driving each friend's choices.
After leaving Raju's house, they accidentally crash Virus's daughter Mona's wedding reception, where they meet Mona's sister Pia. Virus warns Farhan and Raju to stay away from Rancho, so Raju moves in with Chatur, a competitive student who memorises textbooks without understanding. When Chatur prepares a Hindi speech for Virus and the Education Minister, Rancho and Farhan secretly replace words with obscene phrases, humiliating Chatur and sparking a ten-year challenge to see who will succeed in life.
Before the semester exams, Raju's father suffers a stroke. Rancho and Pia rush him to the hospital, saving his life. In the subsequent semester exams, Farhan and Raju are at the bottom of the class while Rancho shockingly tops the class. This continues for the next four years. During a speech, Virus mockingly bets that Farhan and Raju will never get jobs. That night Rancho helps his friends face their fears—encouraging Farhan to pursue photography and Raju to gain confidence. They promise to act on their dreams if Rancho confesses his love to Pia.
Drunk and mischievous, they sneak into Virus's home. Rancho professes his feelings to Pia while Raju urinates on Virus's letterbox. When Raju is caught, Virus demands he betray Rancho or be expelled. Unable to choose, Raju attempts suicide and is hospitalised but survives. Moved, Virus reinstates him. Later, Raju earns a job offer, and Farhan persuades his father to let him become a photographer.
Determined to humiliate Rancho's friends, Virus sets an impossibly hard exam so Raju will fail and lose his job. With Pia's help, Rancho and Farhan steal the paper, but Raju refuses to cheat. They are caught and expelled. Subsequently, Pia confronts her father, revealing that her brother's death was actually a suicide, rather than from a train accident, which was caused by Virus's academic pressure, forcing him to pursue engineering while he wanted to study literature and become a writer, by showing a suicide note written by him.
That night, a storm cuts off power as Mona goes into labour. Rancho organises an emergency delivery using college equipment while Pia guides him over video. The baby survives, and a grateful Virus revokes their expulsion and gifts Rancho his prized Space Pen—signifying respect. Soon after graduation, Rancho disappears.
In the present, Farhan, Raju, and Chatur arrive in Shimla and find Rancho's house. They meet the real Ranchoddas, a wealthy man's son, who tells them that the "Rancho" they knew was actually Chhote, the gardener's gifted child who studied under Ranchoddas's name to earn a degree for him. He gives them Chhote's address in Ladakh. On the way, they crash Pia's wedding in Manali and convince her to leave her fiancé Suhas Tandon and reunite with Rancho.
In Ladakh, they find Chhote teaching at a school he built for poor children, focusing on creativity instead of competition. He reunites with Farhan and Raju and agrees to marry Pia. When Chatur arrives for a business deal, he mocks Chhote for being just a teacher and snatches the Space Pen from him, until he learns that Chhote is actually Phunsukh Wangdu, the inventor he came to meet. A flabbergasted Chatur accepts defeat as the friends run away from him laughing.