<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> ₹ 55 crore (equivalent to ₹ 98 crore or US $15 million in 2017) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> est . ₹ 459.96 crore (equivalent to ₹ 824 crore or US $130 million in 2017) </Td> </Tr> <P> 3 Idiots is a 2009 Indian coming - of - age comedy - drama film, directed and written by Rajkumar Hirani, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, with screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, inspired by the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat . The film stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the title roles, along with Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani and Omi Vaidya . The film is about the friendship of three students at an Indian engineering college, and is a satire about the social pressures under an Asian education system . The film is narrated through parallel dramas, one in the present, the other ten years in the past . It also incorporated real Indian inventions, from Remya Jose, Mohammad Idris, Jahangir Painter, and Sonam Wangchuk . </P> <P> The film received critical acclaim and commercial success . Upon release, 3 Idiots was the highest - grossing film in its opening weekend in India and had the highest opening day collections for an Indian film up until that point, and also held the record for the highest net collections in the first week for a Bollywood film . It also became one of the few Indian films at the time to become successful in East Asian markets, such as China and Japan, eventually bringing its worldwide gross to ₹ 780.96 crore ($90 million)--it was the highest - grossing Indian film ever at the time . The film also had a social impact on attitudes to education in India as well as other Asian countries such as China . </P>

What is the movie 3 idiots all about