An actor and a style guru

Madhavan on Chennai floods, the ‘Saala Khadoos’ look and his style factor.

R. Madhavan Photo: Nagara Gopal

Chennai floods have been a large part of actor Madhavan’s life for the past two weeks now. He may have been in Mumbai co-ordinating and sharing posts on Twitter, but his heart was in Chennai. “My parents and sister are in Chennai. When the floods happened, I couldn’t fly because the airport was shut. It has been a 22-day ordeal and not just three-four days. The media was reporting in the last five days because the issue had become huge by then, but it had been terrible long before that. I’ve been trying to coordinate the relief and rescue work as much as I can — through social media — but the real heroes are people who are actually working on the ground like Siddharth and Dhanush. They are doing a great job. I was just doing the back office job,” he shares.

In Hyderabad as a ‘style speaker’ for the Blender’s Pride Fashion Tour 2015, the actor could be seen sporting a beard and long hair. He will be seen as a boxing coach in the Hindi film Saala Khadoos that’s slated for release early next year. Ask him about the movie and he says, “The Saala Khadoos look is slightly like the Rocky look. We will start the film promotion in four days and I should be able to talk about it then. The publicity budget is about nine crore and my PR team will shoot me if I reveal now.”

However, he is quick to share the excitement building up every day. “I am feeling like a mother pregnant with twins, because my film is releasing in Hindi and Tamil (as

Irudhi Suttru ),” he laughs. The actor admits there is a lot at stake as he is also partly producing the movie with Raju Hirani.

His respect for women has gone up after

Saala Khadoos, he says. “It doesn’t mean that I did not respect women before. This is for trolls on social media who like to misinterpret everything and create a life of hell for themselves,” he clarifies and adds, “As a man, I never thought of how much effort is put in by a woman to do her shringar to just get out of the house. Now, I think of whether I should I use a shower cap, just shampoo my hair or condition it or wear a cap while going out or leave it open. By the time you are out of shower and dry your hair, your moustache and beard, it is a bloody one-hour job. My respect for Sardarjis and the ladies who put in such great effort to keep their hair looking good has gone up.”

He talks about the funda of being a style speaker and his style statement. “In Tamil they say, ‘ Aal paadhi aadai paadhi ,’ which means ‘half a man half the attire.’ I have always believed that you never get a second chance to make your first impression and your style, more than your clothes, helps you stand out in a crowd. In today’s world, that is the first battle to win,” he elucidates.

Be yourself

He recalls how since his childhood he was particular about developing endearing qualities. “There are people who are radicals, loud-mouthed and those trying to make an impression. Since my childhood, my mantra has always been that if you enter a room, everybody should take notice and that one moment is enough to get what I want. One of the things that contribute to that moment was being a nice person. When you meet somebody, you

actually meet them. At a very young stage, I realised that when people come in contact with me, I should make it memorable for them. They would remember that ‘maybe he is not the greatest actor but is a genuine human being.’ The things that contribute to this are being genuine, nice and in the moment. It is called situational awareness which comes from good manners. This has always been an important style factor with me.”