R Madhavan has injured his leg and is taking a break from the day’s interviews to change the dressing on his leg. He avoids jet lag, although I’m told he took off from Dubai in the morning. He has been working steadily – and unexpectedly – in Hindi films. In his previous releases he was a monster in a hoodie, the devilhis next, settle accounts, Streaming on ZEE5 from January 24, is a comedy on banking scams. Madhavan plays a suave, if miser, ticketing inspector in the Indian Railways who is a failed chartered accountant who is tasked with uncovering a major fraud. “I’m embarrassed but I have six films releasing in the next two years,” says Madhavan. “It’s a step up from only doing four in Hindi in the last 10 years.”
in conversation with The HinduMadhavan talks about his working philosophy, his disappointment with recent Hollywood films including Christopher Nolan’s oppenheimerpressure on the average Indian taxpayer and much more.
Recently, a video of you cheering for Ajit Kumar at the Michelin 24H Dubai went viral. We can hear you saying, “I’m here as a fan…”
I am a big fan of Ajit and what he has achieved as a racer. In today’s world, where the need to survive and remain relevant in the news is paramount, he can put his career on hold and follow his heart, his passion. And he does it with such grace, confidence and beauty. Racing is his arena. I was cheering him on as a fan. Obviously I didn’t want to be in the limelight. As they say in Hindi, ‘Abdullah is crazy about someone else’s marriage. I didn’t want to be like that.
It’s difficult to detect a pattern in your recent filmography. You have done three streaming shows of different shades, a biopic, a horror film, a psychological thriller…
I’ll make it a little academic for you. No one believed Aamir Khan in the 2000s rent Will do well. no one thought Give color to spring will become an iconic film, or Teacher Or 3 idiots Or, after a while, Tanu weds Manu. There was no pattern or formula that these films were following. They were not remnants of past success. However, they were all created with conviction and had a unified directorial vision. So my analysis was: Find a topic you really connect with, and do it with bravery and conviction.
Although ‘decoupled’ was…
when i heard the idea decoupledI connected with it. I also enjoyed making it. But then it was released. Sarita (Birje, Madhavan’s wife) and I watched it together and she was like, “What were you thinking?” It felt like it was game over for me. This show was in English. This was extremely insulting. This is not the kind of content that people associate with me. But then I went for promotion and the media was responding positively. I kid you not, world leaders call me up and say, “How did you know the story about my house?”
Filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap and Gautham Menon recently expressed disillusionment with their respective industries. Is mainstream Indian cinema in a period of creative stagnation?
I don’t completely agree with that. As a creative person, I have to question the motives behind a project. If those motives are not kosher, if they are linked to hidden agendas, you will face many issues. We had great filmmakers in our country, they knew how to tell stories, they were extremely successful and then for whatever reason they faded away. The question is, how does someone like Clint Eastwood, who is 94 years old, stay relevant and win an Oscar? He too must have faced upheavals like us. Over time, other actors and directors in India have managed to remain relevant. Look at Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajkumar Hirani, Rajamouli. I will take inspiration from him. There are as many success stories as there are stories of corporatization of everything.
Perhaps the worry is that our films have lost their handmade, organic quality.
Let me ask you this: How is the entire country a fan of K-pop today? How are Korean stars more popular than Indian stars? That content is as real, as organic, and as human as we could hope for. It’s not pompous at all. as it shows squid game And money heist: Korea has fans in India. So content is being created. Are you so comfortable as a filmmaker that you don’t want to break molds and evolve with time? Are you taking your audience for granted? I’ve seen big directors get godfather syndrome, where they go on the set and feel like the godfather. And yet, I have also seen someone like Rajamouli. I gave a screen test for him and even at this age he is as enthusiastic as a child.
Have you watched many movies in the New Year?
Son, it’s only been 20 days. I saw someone called in the flight vengeance Which I thought was nonsense. I hate to say it so bluntly but Hollywood has disappointed me a lot lately. I feel like they’ve lost the plot in a lot of ways. like old movies The Shawshank Redemption, The Usual Suspects, A Beautiful Mind, As Good as It Gets…They’ve been with us for so long. No film in the last five years has made such an impact on me. i saw the original Joker And thought it was a product of passion but the second one was horrible. I’m sorry but I didn’t see what its merit was.
I didn’t like it oppenheimer Too. Let me tell you why: A man has designed an atomic bomb and with one stroke he has killed more people than the history of history. It has destroyed a race and a culture in that part of the world for many years. Wouldn’t you attribute it to the guy who invented it? To me, that was really important. I want to see how Oppenheimer felt when he got the news in the morning… does he come outside, pick up his newspaper, and do his neighbors look at him like a villain? Does he feel happy or does he feel like a monster? Those are the emotional parts they didn’t want to touch. Perhaps they were not comfortable with it or perhaps they were unable to portray it. I’m not going to give them the artistic high ground and call it subtle storytelling. Imagine a film being made on Gandhi but leaving out how he brought us independence.
You have also said before that Indian films are measured on Western standards.
Indian filmmakers including Anurag Kashyap and Gautam Menon have made innovative films that need to be seen internationally. They have to continue doing this. We should not let Western films be the standard of where we want to reach. Let me give an example: There is a word in the English dictionary called ‘wailing’. When something tragic or unexpected happens, people in Asia mourn. Actors in Western films don’t know how to do this. This is not called subtle acting. This is purely a racial and cultural difference. Similarly, song and dance are an integral part of our culture. You cannot have an Indian celebration without songs. How can this be looked at and ridiculed?
‘All We Imagine as Light’ created by FTII alumnus Payal Kapadia has become a global sensation. As the current president of the institute, what has been your role in nurturing filmmaking talent?
I am extremely proud of Payal and all the alumni who have left their mark. I am not an administrator and I do not run the day-to-day functioning of the institute. My role is to make sure everything runs smoothly and that we take the course to the next level. FTII, apart from being the premier film production institute of the country, is one of the largest facilities available to film students from across the world. One fact that impressed me was that we spend Rs 80 lakh of taxpayers’ money on one student. My hope is that when someone graduates from FTII, the industry should eagerly wait to take him. He should be compared with an IIT or IIM graduate. I am trying to bridge the gap to see how dropout rates can be reduced, how we can reduce the length of courses, make them more in line with modern and evolving technologies.
A scene from ‘Hisab Barabar’
‘Hasaab Barabar’ is releasing ahead of the rollout of Union Budget 2025. The Indian middle class is looking forward to relief from high and burdensome taxation structures. Your take?
I agree it’s a bit complicated. My co-star, Kirti Kulhari, made a good observation: Why should the taxation process be such that a common man needs to appoint a CA? It should be simplified to such an extent that the common taxpayer does not feel that he is making a mistake while filing the return. Real middle class people don’t want tax cuts. But don’t make it so complicated that they have to be careful about every detail. I seriously believe this.
published – January 22, 2025 02:07 PM IST
