For fans, R Madhavan will always be Maddy of Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein. After playing the quintessential lover boy in the Gautham Menon-directed movie in 2001, Madhavan got strongly associated with the part. He was charming, charismatic, funny and intensely romantic– and above all else, actually a pretty good actor.
Later, he appeared in more serious, critically acclaimed works like Rang De Basanti, Guru and 3 Idiots. Then came Aanand L Rai’s Tanu Weds Manu that earned him many new fans. But soon the actor took a three-year sabbatical to work on rediscovering himself. In 2015, he made a comeback in Bollywood with Tanu Weds Manu Returns and left everyone impressed with his brilliant performance. He then went on to portray a badass coach in Saala Khadoos which helped him reshape his image as an actor.
This year, he also ventured into digital space with Amazon Prime’s Breathe, in which he plays a troubled father whose boy is suffering from a terminal lung disease. He is also doing Aanand L Rai’s much-anticipated film Zero, to be released in December this year.
R Madhavan in a still from Breathe
“I think I’m on the best stage in my career. I feel a lot more in control. I feel I’m spearheading what I want to and where I want to go. I think it’s a very rare situation for anybody in the film industry,” Madhavan tells News18.com.
Talking about the most challenging part about working on web, the actor said, “You have to be more aspirational than the audience. Your intelligence or whether you want to communicate something or your idea that you feel about strongly should be current and aspirational.”
He is nominated in the Best Actor category for his digital debut at News18 iReel Awards that aims to applaud the makers of various Indian web series.
“It’s a phenomenal initiative. It took its time coming but now that it’s here, it will become an extremely viable option for online actors as well. This is a really good idea and soon I think these kinds of awards will start mattering how important you’re considered in digital media,” said Madhavan.
He will next be seen hosting a new TV show on National Geographic channel. Titled Mega Icons, the five episode series will showcase the journey of former president APJ Abdul Kalam, cricketer Virat Kohli, politician and actor Kamal Haasan, along with some other renowned icons of the country.
“The fantastic part about this project was that like the audience, I was also getting an opportunity to understand what made these people big and what was it about their personality that made them sustain all the challenges and become who they are,” he said.
Further talking about the show, Madhavan said, “Mega Icons is almost like a biopic. In the times of extreme amount of challenges and competition right now, people want to arm themselves with as much knowledge as they can about what it takes to sustain success. So, when we see a show like the ‘Mega Icons’ and explore these personalities, you realise that they were not handed over their success or their icon status, but they fought for it and they also probably followed other icons. Every one of them I know had their own people they admired and followed and probably learnt from them. The purpose of ‘Mega Icons’ is to explore and see if these qualities were in their DNA or they cultivated or conditioned over a period of time.”
On being asked about his icon, Madhavan says, “It’s very important to understand the purpose of where your life is heading at any given point of time and then choose your icons accordingly. I think there’s no reason why only one person should be motivation for you. So, I have many such people from Gandhi to Kamal sir and Amit ji (Amitabh Bachchan). Depending on what situation I’m stuck with, I resort to what these icons would have done in a situation like that.”
Comments
0 comment