Madhavan looked nothing like the chocolate hero I had imagined him to be when he entered the room for the interview on his latest film Saala Khadoos. Rather, he looked like a total khadoos. Hair all messed-up, a beard, and muscles straining against of his sweatshirt. So I couldn’t help but begin by asking him this question.
Q. You look quite beefed up, you must be doing some crazy training for the film?
Madhavan: This film was such a sports oriented film, not merely in its story but also in the fact that it had to be very real. And one of the reasons for casting a girl like Ritika was because she was completely a boxer. She is a fighter. So it would be really odd if I went in there as an actor and looked like I was touching the gloves for the first time, it would not look like a boxer. There wasn’t any need because I was just a coach but I still wanted to make people realise that this guy could have been a brute in his days as a boxer.
So I decided to build the physique of a retired boxer. It took me around a year and a half. I went to Los Angeles and learnt all about how to build a body of a boxer.
Q. But why Los Angeles?
Madhavan: Because you know when I stay here, I get distracted a lot. It’s very easy to succumb to the call of money. I had to give up everything for one and a half years. No earnings, no ad films, no appearance, that is zero money right? Also that pushes you. If you are here then everybody is like “Maddy chal aaja, aaj raat ko party hai”. There is some appearance here, there is some appearance there so there is always a desire to make money on the side while you are waiting and it’s very distracting.
Q. Even after the training did you at any point feel you were not up to Ritika’s mark, who is a professional boxer?
Madhavan: I always knew she was a great boxer but you will be shocked that she was even better an actor than half the heroines I have ever worked with.
Her screen test was to sell fish in the first two hours of opening the market after three weeks of training and she sold it in the first 25minutes. I mean the fisher woman were very happy to let her go ki ja bhaiya humare dhande pe laat mat maar. She is phenomenal.
She was that good. And I am convinced now that acting is an inborn talent it cannot be taught to anybody. If you are not an actor you are not an actor.
Q. Are you a khadoos in real life?
Yes, this character is me in real life. I am quite a khadoos. I am a very angry kind of a guy, very short tempered. My staff will give testimony to that.
Q. Any project you are working on after this?
Madhavan: No yaar, as usual I am tthan tthan Gopal, totally vella.
Q. So what do you do when you are not working?
Madhavan: I enjoy my life yaar. Itna paisa kamake fayda kya hai? So I play golf, I travel a lot, I like indulging in other hobbies like, I grow vegetables on my terrace, I do research on that. I go skiing. My son is growing up, he will be 6 years to7 years this time around only. Ye saal chhoot jayenge toh bada ho jayega.
It doesn’t matter if I am around between 15 and 17 years but makes a lot of difference when he is around 4 to 7. So, when I was away in Los Angeles, staying away from him was the hardest part. But I used to keep talking to him and he understands that this is my life and this is how the career’s going to go. I used to meet him every other month but I have been away for quite a bit.
Q. Has Vedant seen the trailer of the film?
He thinks I’m a rockstar, so he is very proud of me. He was very proud when his friends came and asked him “How does your father look like a Hulk?” So that worked for him.
Q. Akshay is doing a Tamil film. Do you think South will start accepting male Bollywood actors?
(Shakes his head in the negative) Nah! It’s not that, they are huge fans of Akshay Kumar but unless Akshay Kumar is able to wear a veshti, pick up an aruval and sing and dance and do a Madurai twang, he will always be an amusement factor. Having said that Mr Rajinikanth is from Karnataka but they have accepted him. He started there, he knows how to speak in Tamil. It’s not going to be that easy.
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