Ever since 3 Idiots was released in December, its director Rajkumar Hirani has spent more time on a plane than on terra firma. It perhaps signifies that he is flying high these days after three resounding, back-to-back hits.

A few things, however, haven’t changed for Raju. A few days back, there he was quietly dining with his co-writer Abhijat Joshi (a professor in the US who is on long leave) at MIG Cricket Club, a stone’s throw from his house at Mumbai’s Bandra East. MIG is a modest, middle class club and Raju continues to patronise it long after success put him in a completely different income bracket. He concedes, “For some reason, people expect you to change. They expect you to be seen only in five-star hotels but Abhijat and I continue to be the people we have always been. This time too, after dinner we walked down Bandra-Kurla Complex, discussing our next script. It was raining slightly and it was no different from the numerous times we’ve walked around deep in discussion.”

What is different this time is that Raju has logged more hours on various airlines than he did in his entire life and it is with a reason. “I hadn’t travelled at all after Lage Raho Munna Bhai. For two years I had turned down all invitations because I didn’t want to be distracted from writing the script. When I went to drop a friend at the airport, I found everything looked different. So much had changed and I’d been unaware of it because I hadn’t travelled anywhere.”

And so, he resolved that he wouldn’t repeat this lapse after the release of 3 Idiots. “I decided to accept all invitations to various festivals and screenings and for six months I have really travelled. It has been wonderful,” he says, looking exhilarated and refreshed.

Apart from Australia, the US and the Caribbean where 3 Idiots was being screened at different events, then the UN where his film was shown to delegates and IIFA in Sri Lanka, Raju was also in Dubai last weekend. This time it was for his buddy, Boman Irani, whose son has branched out into event management in the UAE. Boman, the fond father, was doing a stand-up comedy act for his son’s company and he was keen that Raju be a part of his audience. In his new call-me-anywhere mood, Raju took the first flight out to Dubai and enjoyed himself applauding Boman’s latest live performance. “He stood there and kept everybody entertained for two hours non-stop,” says Raju admiringly. “Few know that Boman is also a very good singer. So he sang, he talked, he was brilliant.”

By the time you read this, Raju will be on another flight. This one’s for son Vir who has his vacation and it’s going to be strictly daddy time. Raju, wife Manjeet and son Vir have headed for Thailand for a leisurely family holiday.

After that he will return to Mumbai for some more script writing. He has two of them going on simultaneously. One of them will be a Munna Bhai film for which tentative dates have been taken from Sanjay Dutt next April. But at the moment Raju isn’t sure which of the two scripts will work out and become his next film.

In between flights, Raju was there for Aamir Khan when he released the rustic music of his next production, Peepli Live. Other directors from Aamir Khan’s stable like Ashutosh Gowariker and Rakeysh Mehra were also present, all at one table along with co-stars Sharman Joshi and Atul Kulkarni. Karan Johar who is not from the same stable but has struck up a new equation with Aamir rushed in late. The photographers forgot what was happening on stage and focussed on Karan and Aamir.

Hand it to Aamir for turning Peepli Live, a small-budget starcast film, into a media event. Unlike other actors who blindly exhibit a herd mentality by being here, there and everywhere (on TV, on every reality show, on every FM channel), Aamir has spent time mapping out a unique promotion campaign to ensure maximum exposure for his small film. With so many celebrity filmmakers in the audience and raw talent on stage, culminating in Aamir Khan turning drummer with the Indian Ocean band for the last number, the actor kept the audience entertained and enthralled for a little over an hour. It sure helped because Peepli Live is getting as much notice as any big budget, starcast film. That bit as the drummer was easily the best touch of the evening. You don’t miss a beat, do you, Mr Khan?

Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor, The Film Street Journal