After a three-year break, R. Madhavan is back with Tanu Weds Manu Returns, which has already grossed 100 crores at the box office. The actor, who turns 45 on June 1, talks about his journey so far, if the Rs 100 crore club is overrated and more. Madhavan prefers having a quiet birthday with his family. But this year is going to be special, because of the success of TWMR.
“I generally have quiet birthdays with my family and go to the temple like a good Indian boy. This time they are all forcing me to have a party, because I will be turning 45 this year,” he says, “My best birthday party was when I was able to have a large group of my family together and we had all gone to the temple.”
With the success of content-backed small budget movies like Piku and TWMR, Madhavan hopes that such movies should be the future of Bollywood. “I think a great content-backed film with appropriate casting is capable of giving you large returns. Coming to TWMR, I expected it to be loved by the audience because it was made from the heart. But I certainly didn’t expect Rs 100 crore worth of love.”
But does he think that the 100-crore club is overrated? “If a film is made in Rs 6 crore and it makes Rs 66 crore then it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a hit. However, I think it is a great milestone to reach Rs100 crore, a certain number of people need to watch the movie. For this, the movie should either have a great star or good content.”
Talking about why he took a three-year break, he says, “I was bored with the way I was acting and was tired with all the stuff I was doing, I needed to refresh myself. I have done around 43 films in the last 10 years, but in the last five years, I did only four. I wanted to slow down. I had done so many films that I got used to my own expressions. I want to speak more with my eyes and see if I am able to convey it without saying.” He adds, “I am constantly looking for content backed films. Kamal Haasan’s role in Nayakan or a film like Amitabh Bachchan’s Deewar, those are the kind of films I would like to do.”
About being one of the few actors from the South, who has made a mark for himself in Bollywood, Madhavan says, “I just think that I have been lucky to get the directors and producers to work with and the fact that I can speak Hindi fluently also worked. I was born in Jamshedpur. I know both Tamil and Hindi fluently. It is important to not only know how to speak Hindi, but you must also know how to speak different types of Hindi — like Bihari Hindi or Lucknowi Hindi, etc.”
But Madhavan never wanted to be an actor. “Acting happened by chance, if not this, I would have been in the military or navy.” It’s been close to 15 years since Madhavan entered the film industry and he is happy with the way his career is shaping up despite the three-year break. “How much more happy can I get? You have a film that is touching Rs 100 crore. You have so much love from people around. Whatever films I have done people remember me by the name of the character.”
But Madhavan promises that he would focus equally on South and Bollywood movies. “Every year, I try to do at least one South movie. My next movie, Saala Khadoos, will release in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.”
