Madhavan

01 Jun, 1970 | Jamshedpur,Jharkhand

Actor/Producer/Director

Biography

R. Madhavan (born Madhavan Ranganathan) is a Filmfare Award-winning Indian actor. Unlike other prominent actors in India, Madhavan began to act after marriage, at the age of twenty-nine, and his short career has seen performances in diverse roles. He has received several Filmfare Awards in various categories. Madhavan's first major film appearance was in the 2000 romantic film, Alaipayuthey, in which he played a husband going through the trauma of marriage. In the 2002 blockbuster Kannathil Muthamittal, he portrayed the father of an orphaned child alongside Simran. Madhavan, a Tamilian, has taken an activist role in supporting various political and social causes. He appeared in PETA advertising, campaigning against cruelty towards animals, and he has promoted vegetarian causes. Perspnal and Family Life Ranganathan and Saroja, the parents of Madhavan, disliked their son's foray into television dramas and advertisements; they were, however, forgiving after his selection in Mani Ratnam's Alaipayuthey. Despite Madhavan's ambition of wanting to join the army, his parents insisted on him going to management school and getting a degree in electronics. After completing the degree, he went on to teach communication and public speaking at workshops around India. At the Maharashtra workshop, he met his wife, Sarita Birje, an air hostess whom he married in 1999. Their first son, Vedant, was born on August 21, 2005, prompting them to relocate from Kilpauk to Chennai's boat club area. Madhavan's parents continue to live with him, as do his parents-in-law. Early Life and Education Madhavan was born in Jamshedpur, India, to Ranganathan, a senior management executive with Tata Steel, and Saroja, a manager with the Bank of India. Madhavan's sister, Devika Ranganathan, is a software engineer living in London, England. In 1988, Madhavan was chosen to represent India as its cultural ambassador from his college to Canada after his graduation. At 22, he was awarded the Maharashtra Best Cadet, allowing him to make a trip with three others as NCC Cadets to England. Because of this honour, he received training with the Royal Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, which he had previously planned to join. However, he was rejected as he missed the age cutoff by six months. After he lost out on the place, he began taking courses in public speaking, which eventually helped him venture into the film industry. He won the Indian Championship for Public Speaking and was subsequently selected to represent India at the Young Businessmen Conference in Tokyo, Japan, in 1992. Early Career In early 1997, Madhavan did a sandalwood talc advertisement for Santosh Sivan, who later recommended him to Mani Ratnam for a screen test for a role in Iruvar. Later in the same year, Mani Ratnam called Madhavan for the screen test but left him out of the project, citing that he thought his eyes looked too young for a senior role. As his film career failed to take off, Madhavan reverted to acting in Hindi television serials. He appeared in minor roles in serials titled Saaya, Sea Hawks, Banegi Apni Baat, Tol Mol Ke Bol, and Ghar Jamai. In 1998, Madhavan appeared in his first film role as an Indian police officer in Fred Olen Ray's Inferno alongside Don Wilson. His first break in Indian cinema came in the form of Shanti Shanti Shanti, a Kannada film in which he played the second lead to established actor Abbas. However, the film failed to make an impact and went unnoticed. Career Life In the lead role of Mani Ratnam's movie Alaipayuthey, Madhavan made his acting debut in Kollywood. His performance was warmly received by the reviewers, which helped it become a "classic."In the romantic comedy Minnale, which Gautham Vasudev Menon directed in 2001, Madhavan played his first leading role. He achieved both economic and critical success by taking on the role of an irate groom attempting to call off his wedding. In Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal from 2002, Madhavan portrayed a novelist. The movie earned a lot of positive reviews and went on to win six National Awards. His next movie is Run renowned for its screenplay, brought him his second significant breakthrough.  In the 2003 film Anbe Sivam, Madhavan plays a young, dissatisfied filmmaker who journeys with a communist with a disability, played by Kamal Haasan  is considered one of the "cult classics" of Tamil cinema. Comeback: During his career break, Madhavan worked on Irudhi Suttru' in 2016. He assisted in finding the project's Tamil producers and chose to produce the film in Hindi alongside S. Sashikanth and Rajkumar Hirani. Vikram Vedha was written by Pushkar-Gayathri with inspiration from the folk tale Vikramathithan Vedhalam, Co starring withVijay Sethupathi. For his role as an encounter cop, Madhavan received weapons training and met members of the police and defense forces. For this, he received widespread acclaim and awards from critics, SIIMA, Filmfare, and other awarding bodies.