'I am not superstitious'

Despite his claim, Aamir 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 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. Aamir 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.