Nanban (English: Friend) is a 2012 Tamil coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Shankar. It is a remake of Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots (2009), which itself was adapted from the novel Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT! by Chetan Bhagat.[4] featuring an ensemble cast that includes Vijay, Jiiva, Srikanth, Ileana D'Cruz, Sathyan and Sathyaraj.