R.Madhavan

Biography:

Ranganathan Madhavan was born in India on June 1, 1970 in India, to a Tamil Brahmin family. Actor, writer, director, and producer. He primarily works in Tamil and Hindi films. Througut his career, he has received numerous honors, such as one Tamil Nadu State Film Award, four Filmfare Awards South, and one National Film Award. He is currently the president of Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India (FITI).

His mother, Saroja, was a manager at the Bank of India, and his father, Ranganathan Iyengar, was a management executive at Tata Steel. Devika, his younger sister, works as a software engineer. In Jharkhand, he was raised by Tamil speakers.  Madhavan attended Jamshedpur’s D.B.M.S. English School for his education.

Madhavan was awarded a scholarship by Rajaram College, Kolhapur, in 1988 to serve as a cultural ambassador for India. As part of a Rotary International exchange program, he lived for a year in Stettler, Alberta, Canada. He went back to Kolhapur to finish his studies, earning a BSc in electronics in the process. Madhavan actively participated in extracurricular military training during his college years, and at the age of 22, he was acknowledged as one of Maharashtra’s top NCC cadets, granting him permission to travel to England with seven other NCC cadets. This chance allowed him to train with the British Army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force, which he had briefly thought about joining.

He was not able to enroll in the program, though, since he was six months over the age cutoff. He started teaching public speaking and personality development skills in Kolhapur after being rejected from the position. The satisfaction he felt from teaching led him to decide to enroll in Kishinchand Chellaram College in Mumbai for a post-graduate degree in public speaking. He also took home the Indian Championship for Public Speaking during that time, and in 1992, he represented India in Tokyo, Japan at the Young Businessmen’s Conference.

He made the decision to put together a portfolio during his time in Mumbai and send it to a modeling agency in an effort to raise money for an office.

Prior to starting his film career, Madhavan was discovered by a television executive while out for a stroll in Mumbai’s Lokhandwala. He was then approached to appear in Hindi television serials, with his first role being that of a crook in Yule Love Story (1993). His major roles on Zee TV included Ghar Jamai and Banegi Apni Baat (1993). He also became more well-known for his portrayal of Shekhar in Saaya. He continued on to play Lt. Shammi in Aarohan. Among other television roles, he appeared as a ship’s captain in Sea Hawks, a prisoner in Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum, and a television anchor in Tol Mol Ke Bol. In 1995, Madhavan made an appearance in the television series A Mouthful of Sky, playing an actor. Additionally, he made an appearance in the Hindi horror TV series Aahat’s Virasat episode.

He played a singer in a bar in a small role in the 1996 feature film Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, which marked his first appearance in a feature film. Madhavan began work on a sandalwood talc commercial in early 1996 under the direction of Santosh Sivan, who subsequently suggested Madhavan to Mani Ratnam for a screen test for a part in Iruvar (1997). Madhavan tried out for the main role of Tamizhselvan alongside a number of more seasoned actors, but Mani Ratnam ultimately decided not to cast him, saying his “eyes looked too young” for a senior role.

Madhavan made an appearance in the 1997 English film Inferno, directed by Fred Olen Ray and set in India, in a supporting role as an Indian police officer. His first opportunity to appear in Indian cinema was in the Kannada film Shanti Shanti Shanti (1998), where he costarred with actor Abbas as a carefree young man. Nevertheless, the movie was a commercial failure and received little attention. Vinod Pandey, a Hindi film director, introduced Madhavan as a Bollywood hero during that time with the film Akeli, but the project was shelved before it could be finished.

His next role was in the 2017 action thriller Vikram Vedha, which was produced by Sashikanth and helmed by the duo Pushkar-Gayathri. The movie, written by Pushkar-Gayathri, is about an encounter cop who pursues a gangster played by Vijay Sethupathi. The script was inspired by the Vikramathithan Vedhalam folk tale, and the characters in the lead roles were modeled after that storyline. Madhavan met people in the police and defence forces and received arms training for his role.

When Vikram Vedha debuted in July 2017, it received overwhelmingly positive reviews from the press and business professionals. Film critics praised Madhavan’s performance, calling him “whole-hearted” and “stylish and serious.” Sify.com’s reviewer called it a “treat to watch two intense performers Madhavan and Vijay.”

According to trade analysts, the movie was a “blockbuster” and ended up being Madhavan’s biggest commercial success in Tamil cinema history. In addition to receiving his fourth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil, which he lost to co-star Vijay Sethupathi, the movie earned Madhavan the title of Best Actor (Critics) – Tamil.

His initial work consisted of commercials for brands such as Maruti Suzuki, Ponds, Bajaj, Joy Alikkas, TVS, Airtel, and Bajaj. Later, he signed a significant endorsement agreement with Pepsi and the marketing firm IMG.

He played the antagonist in Savyasachi (2018), a Telugu movie featuring a cast led by Naga Chaitanya, in his first feature-length role. Although the movie did not receive much of a response at the box office, Madhavan’s performance was well received; one critic called his “impressive performance” the “saving grace of the film”. After making a lengthy cameo in Shahrukh Khan and Anushka Sharma’s Hindi film Zero (2018), Madhavan starred in the bilingual thriller Nishabdham, which was filmed entirely in Seattle. Before the decision was made to add dialogue and produce Tamil and Telugu versions, the movie was initially silent.

His portrayal of a wandering artist from Kochi won him praise for his performance in the 2021 film Maara. Madhavan directed his first movie, Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2022), a biographical picture of Indian rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan, between 2017 and 2022. In addition to his credits for acting, screenwriting, and directing, Madhavan was also one of the project’s producers. In the pre-production stage, Madhavan called the movie his “biggest film ever” and revealed that he had spent two years working on the script in silence after being captivated by the story of Narayanan’s false espionage accusation.

Scenes in the Hindi, Tamil, and English languages were all simultaneously filmed during the trilingual production of the movie. In May 2022, the movie made its world premiere at the Marché du Film section of the Cannes Film Festival in France. Two months later, it was released in theaters.Critics gave the movie favorable reviews. “Madhavan lives and breathes the character, getting the nuances right,” according to Devesh Sharma of Filmfare. “It’s not easy being both the lead actor and the director but Madhavan achieves the desired trajectory on both fronts,” Sharma continued.

At the same time, Ronak Kotecha said “Rocketry takes off well, hits some turbulence on the way, but eventually soars high with real characters and moving moments that make it worth your while” . The following year, the movie brought Madhavan a number of accolades, including the SIIMA Critics Award for Best Actor, the National Film Award for Best Feature Film, and the IIFA Award for Best Director.