Madhavan quit acting for 4 years after he felt humiliated by Swiss farmer

 

R Madhavan can do no wrong -- from his author-backed performances in films as wide-ranging as Vikram Vedha, Kesari 2, Shaitaan and Dhurandhar. However, the actor has now revealed that this version of Madhavan 2 came from a four-year break from acting, which started with a Swiss farmer giving him a disdainful look while he was dancing in a Tamil song. The break transformed him from a "lover boy" into the powerhouse performer.

R Madhavan took a 4-year break from acting in 2011, only making a comeback with his hit film Saala Khadoos in 2016, and went on to choose very different characters than earlier. In a recent interview, Madhavan opened up about the reason behind going on a sabbatical.

 

During a conversation with Unfiltered Entertainment, he shared, "Vikram Vedha happened to me after a sabbatical. Before Saala Khadoos, I had to take a break because I was very disillusioned with the kind of work I was doing. I was shooting in Switzerland with orange pants and green shirt for a Tamil song. I was in the middle of the road and I saw this Swiss farmer, sitting there, looking at us with complete disdain. Sipping a cup of tea and thinking of what we were doing. I looked at him and thought you come to Chennai and I'll show you who I am."

The actor continued, "I was really offended, but then it struck me suddenly. I am literally dancing to other people's tunes. I am a public speaker, I know how to handle a gun, fly remote planes, ride horses, I do so many things. I am showing none of it in my movies. The only think I was trying to do was to woo the audience, which will make me a superstar. I realised the mistake I was doing."

 

It was his wife Sarita Burje who asked him about how he was demotivated about going to work. "Even the characters that I was playing... Like a hungry guy who is uneducated from a village and trying his best to make his career in cricket. I mean, from no angle do Arvind Swamy look like we are either uneducated or starved for food. Those are all the wrong things to do. One day, my wife asked me, 'What's wrong with you'. She said that you are going for work like you want to come back from it. That actually made a lot of sense," Madhavan said. He was referring to Telugu remake of Thani Oruvan (where he felt he and Arvind Swamy were miscast as uneducated, starving village characters) as an example of roles that felt logically inconsistent.

 

During his break, the 55-year-old travelled a lot to understand the real world. "So, I took a break. I wanted to understand where the country was going. I even stopped doing ad films, grew a beard, travelled a lot around Chennai, and other places in India. I talked to rickshaw guys, what really matters to them, what's the real cost of stuff that bothers them. That insight for four years is probably what I'm eating off right now."

After coming back, R Madhavan shared that he had a clear understanding about the kind of roles and films he wanted to be cast in. "When I came back, I realised that my filmmakers, the ones who were making movies with me, were not as forward thinking as me. Their ability to tell a story was still to impress their mentors. I started looking for new directors," he wrapped up.