He thrilled the audiences with horror flick 13B but South Indian heartthrob R Madhavan believes that he is not a crowd puller like Aamir Khan or Akshay Kumar to get solo roles in Bollywood.
The actor, a superstar in South, has been critically lauded for his characters in ensemble films like Mani Ratnam’s Guru, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti and Soha Ali Khan, K K Menon starrer, Mumbai Meri Jaan.
Madhavan’s upcoming films Teen Patti and 3 Idiots will also see him sharing the screen space with Bollywood bigwigs like Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan.
When asked why the actor had few solo roles in Bollywood despite a steady fan base, the actor said, “Today it is very difficult to market a film with solo lead. The film should earn it cost of production with its initial opening.”
“The likes of Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar can garner it but as a solo hero may be I am not able to get the kind of opening that a film requires in terms of expenditure,”
Madhavan told PTI on the sidelines of the promotion of his ‘Sikander’ which is set to release on August 21.
The 39-year-old actor, who started his Bollywood career with Rehna Hai Tere Dil Me in 2001, will be seen portraying the character of an army officer in Piyush Jha’s suspense thriller which also stars Parzan Dastur, Ayesha Kapur, Sanjay Suri and Arunoday Singh.
The role was a dream come true for the actor who would have been a air force pilot if not in the show business.
“I was thrilled to have this role. But then on camera its like enjoying all the good things about the job and not facing the scary part of it,” said the actor who was offered the role because he had an experience in NCC training.
Set in the backdrop of Kashmir, Sikander revolves around a teenage boy Sikandar Raza (Parzan), who dreams of being a national level football player but things take an unexpected turn when he finds a gun on the road.
However, Madhavan insists that the film is not on “Kashmir issue”. “It is a suspense thriller. It does not educate you on the Kashmir issue. There is no message involved in the film. It is a story of a boy, his dreams and dilemma with just the backdrop of Kashmir and militancy,” the actor said.
When asked about his experience of shooting in the valley, the actor said, “I am already aware about the situation as a citizen but after shooting there I could get the other side. Like how the people there were desperate to
prove to us that there is nothing wrong here and one should come back with their family.”
“They are yearning for normalcy which is sad because the common man is not a militant and it doesn’t matter to him who is ruling. He wants to live life, earn his livelihood and make sure his future generation is safe and sound,” the actor added.
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Tags: Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Guru, I am not a crowd puller: Maddy, K K Menon, maddy, mani ratnam, Meri Jaan, R. Madhavan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti, Soha Ali Khan | Filed in Bollywood, Featured
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1 Response
This article must have been written by a Northerner who has no clue as to who is a star in the South and who isn’t. Madhavan is not a superstar in the South. He has mainly acted in Tamil films and that does not mean the entire Southern film industry knows him. Even in Tamil he is not one of the leading actors. His name does not even figure in the list of the favourite Tamil stars poll in this site! Some very popular actors in Tamil cinema are not known to Telugu audiences and vice versa…so could you all please stop lumping all the Southern cinemas as though it is one! Geez! Why accuse the Americans of being racists when they detained SRK because they did not know who he was when in your own India, (and this is true for those from the Hindi belt) you don’t know who is who south of your country!
Posted on August 23rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
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