It helps that I can play a south Indian, Punjabi, Bihari: R Madhavan


R Madhavan was an early experimenter. Before the indie wave and streaming platforms took new-age stories mainstream, he became the beloved Maddy, straddling the worlds of Hindi and south Indian cinema, as well as the worlds of mainstream and non-mainstream.

His breakthrough role came via the TV show Banegi Apni Baat (1993), an unusually candid exploration of love that also featured a young Irrfan Khan, Surekha Sikri, and multiple onscreen kisses. Then came films in English (Inferno, 1997), Kannada (Shanti Shanti Shanti, 1998), Hindi and Tamil.

In his breakthrough film, Mani Ratnam’s Alaipayuthey (Flowing Waves, 2000), he played a young husband trying to find his feet in his marriage. In the Aamir Khan-starrer Rang De Basanti (2006), he was flight lieutenant Ajay Singh Rathod. In the Tamil Irudhi Suttru (Final Round; 2016), he plays an ageing and sidelined boxing coach still chasing a dream, this time of training a future superstar. In the Hindi series Breathe on Amazon Prime (2018), he’s a father willing to do desperate things to find an organ donor for his son.

Ahead of the release of his second OTT show, the Netflix drama-comedy Decoupled, due for release on December 17 (he plays one half of a couple coming to terms with their impending divorce), Madhavan sat down with Madhusree Ghosh to discuss how he chooses his roles, his take on the passage of time (he’s 51), and why he doesn’t have a bucket list. Excerpts from the interview.

It’s been such a diverse range… how do you choose your roles?

Most often, I’ve gone with my instincts. Sometimes, my decisions have surprised me… I might have said no to a film that eventually became a big hit, but I’ve never regretted it. Because if I’m playing, for instance, a romantic hero, I need to feel romantic as a person during that time in my life. That’s how it works for me as an actor. Also something that works for me is, I never repeat a genre or a type of film that worked for me earlier.

What do you think makes it possible for you to so seamlessly move between mainstream and non-mainstream, south and north?

I think where I was born and who I am work largely to my favour. Living in a small town like Jamshedpur and studying in Kolhapur and then going abroad (to Canada for a year, in 1988, as part of an exchange programme), all these life experiences really help me to play the characters that I play.

I think the fact that both Hindi and Tamil come naturally to me also helps, because then I’m able to pull off a south Indian boy as easily as I can pull off a Bihari or Punjabi.

What do you want people to know about Decoupled?

It’s a very caustic look at society, but also a rare look at a happy separation, a separation that’s not bitter. That was something I wanted to explore.

I love doing comedy, though I’m more inclined towards humour than slapstick. This show has self-deprecating comedy, which I love doing.

My character, Arya, is a Maddy with guts. Some people don’t have the ability to say what they really feel. This guy that I am playing will just say what he sees in the way he sees it. I like that too.

What was it like shooting in the pandemic?

We shot at the end of last year, in the interval period between the first and second wave. Shooting again was so much fun. Because we had gone back to shoot amid Covid, everybody was wearing masks. So there was always a guessing game of who was who. It took a little while for us to get the chemistry together, off screen, as everyone was fearful of getting infected. The unit was excellent, especially my interactions with the writer Manu Joseph. My character Arya is also a writer, so it was fun replicating his characteristics.

What’s next on your bucket list of roles to do?

I’m too young for a bucket list! I’m working on Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (a biographical drama based on the life of former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, who fought for years to clear his name after being falsely accused of espionage). That’s my next release as a producer, director and lead actor, and I await the response with bated breath.


R Madhavan was an early experimenter. Before the indie wave and streaming platforms took new-age stories mainstream, he became the beloved Maddy, straddling the worlds of Hindi and south Indian cinema, as well as the worlds of mainstream and non-mainstream.

His breakthrough role came via the TV show Banegi Apni Baat (1993), an unusually candid exploration of love that also featured a young Irrfan Khan, Surekha Sikri, and multiple onscreen kisses. Then came films in English (Inferno, 1997), Kannada (Shanti Shanti Shanti, 1998), Hindi and Tamil.

In his breakthrough film, Mani Ratnam’s Alaipayuthey (Flowing Waves, 2000), he played a young husband trying to find his feet in his marriage. In the Aamir Khan-starrer Rang De Basanti (2006), he was flight lieutenant Ajay Singh Rathod. In the Tamil Irudhi Suttru (Final Round; 2016), he plays an ageing and sidelined boxing coach still chasing a dream, this time of training a future superstar. In the Hindi series Breathe on Amazon Prime (2018), he’s a father willing to do desperate things to find an organ donor for his son.

Ahead of the release of his second OTT show, the Netflix drama-comedy Decoupled, due for release on December 17 (he plays one half of a couple coming to terms with their impending divorce), Madhavan sat down with Madhusree Ghosh to discuss how he chooses his roles, his take on the passage of time (he’s 51), and why he doesn’t have a bucket list. Excerpts from the interview.

It’s been such a diverse range… how do you choose your roles?

Most often, I’ve gone with my instincts. Sometimes, my decisions have surprised me… I might have said no to a film that eventually became a big hit, but I’ve never regretted it. Because if I’m playing, for instance, a romantic hero, I need to feel romantic as a person during that time in my life. That’s how it works for me as an actor. Also something that works for me is, I never repeat a genre or a type of film that worked for me earlier.

What do you think makes it possible for you to so seamlessly move between mainstream and non-mainstream, south and north?

I think where I was born and who I am work largely to my favour. Living in a small town like Jamshedpur and studying in Kolhapur and then going abroad (to Canada for a year, in 1988, as part of an exchange programme), all these life experiences really help me to play the characters that I play.

I think the fact that both Hindi and Tamil come naturally to me also helps, because then I’m able to pull off a south Indian boy as easily as I can pull off a Bihari or Punjabi.

What do you want people to know about Decoupled?

It’s a very caustic look at society, but also a rare look at a happy separation, a separation that’s not bitter. That was something I wanted to explore.

I love doing comedy, though I’m more inclined towards humour than slapstick. This show has self-deprecating comedy, which I love doing.

My character, Arya, is a Maddy with guts. Some people don’t have the ability to say what they really feel. This guy that I am playing will just say what he sees in the way he sees it. I like that too.

What was it like shooting in the pandemic?

We shot at the end of last year, in the interval period between the first and second wave. Shooting again was so much fun. Because we had gone back to shoot amid Covid, everybody was wearing masks. So there was always a guessing game of who was who. It took a little while for us to get the chemistry together, off screen, as everyone was fearful of getting infected. The unit was excellent, especially my interactions with the writer Manu Joseph. My character Arya is also a writer, so it was fun replicating his characteristics.

What’s next on your bucket list of roles to do?

I’m too young for a bucket list! I’m working on Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (a biographical drama based on the life of former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, who fought for years to clear his name after being falsely accused of espionage). That’s my next release as a producer, director and lead actor, and I await the response with bated breath.

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