I am not superstitious, says Aamir Khan

Despite his claim, Khan does agree that the date has worked wonders for him and now hopes to be a third time lucky.

The actor's directorial debut 'Taare Zameen Par' which was released on Christmas in 2007 went onto win a National Award while last year's December release 'Ghajini' broke all box office records.

"I hope to be third time lucky with '3 Idiots' but the release date is more of a coincidence than a planned move. I am not superstitious. Ghajini was supposed to be an October release, but it had to be postponed to December because I was injured," Aamir said.

The 44-year-old actor plays Rancho, a happy-go-lucky engineering student in the film, directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, which has the tagline 'Don't be Stupid, be an Idiot'.

The 44-year-old Khan said that he was initially sceptical about playing a character less than half his actual age, but took up the role as he realised that just like Rancho, he was an idiot in real life.

"The film defines idiot as someone who dares to do the unusual and chases excellence not success. Rajkumar Hirani told me that I am an idiot like my character Rancho in the movie and I agree with him. I have made the same decisions in my life. I realised I am the idiot of Bollywood," said Khan.

Khan was in the city to unveil a new song 'Sunshine' from the upcoming film along with co-stars Sharman Joshi and R Madhavan.

The actor is paired opposite 28-year-old Kareena Kapoor in the film and despite her being the fourth protagonist in the movie, the actor said she is too beautiful to be called an idiot.

Khan reunites with his 'Rang De Basanti' co-stars Sharman Joshi and Madhavan in the movie and said that he got to experience life as a student through the film.

"I started working as a assistant director soon after finishing twelfth class, so I did not really have a fun college life. We shot the film in college campuses, IIM's and that is when I actually sort of experienced life as a student.

"Me, Sharman and Madhavan became friends on the sets of RDB and we had fun shooting the film as all three of us are naughty people," said Khan.

The actor, who lost weight to fit into his character said that it was heartbreaking to lose the famed eight pack abs which he had worked hard to gain for his role in last year's action caper 'Ghajini'.

Khan spent six months losing weight for the film as the role required a guy with a normal physique, not a muscle man.

"I had to lose weight for the role because I am playing a normal student and a buffed up look would not have worked. But it was heartbreaking to lose the entire year's hard work that had gone into building my body for 'Ghajini'," said Aamir.