Birthday Special: R Madhavan opens up on his idol Kamal Haasan; says, “I’d be happy if I achieve even a fraction of what he has”

Maddy, have you always admired Kamal Haasan?

Oh absolutely, he is to Tamil cinema what Bachchan Saab is to Hindi cinema. I remember my excitement when I was to do a film with Kamalji. It was to be directed by Priyadarshan. To discuss the project, I spent the most unforgettable four hours with Kamalji. For the first three hours we talked about everything under the sun except the film. We had lunch together. As he talked about his life, work and friends, I realized what made him who he was. Then we finally got down to discussing the film. He told me the script of a road movie, which was absolutely fabulous. After I heard him out, I told him I want to do the film exactly the way he narrated it to me. ‘Just take me on and teach me,’ I told him. The way he enacted my scenes and his own was simply amazing. I wanted to do my own scenes exactly the way he showed me. 

You were super-excited? I was! I remember Kamalji paid me a really big backhanded compliment. He said he needed someone for my role who was spontaneous, so he wouldn’t have to worry about what that character is doing. Kamalji is such a pathbreaker. I believe there are two kinds of people in world, the reasonable and unreasonable kind. The reasonable man adapts to the world while the unreasonable man tries to bring the world around to his point of view. All progress in the world is due to unreasonable men like Kamalji. 

Go on? Here’s a man who’s always pushing the envelope regardless of the repercussions. That’s the frenzy of a genius at work. My whole family is so excited about it. We’re all diehard Kamal Haasan fans. My father relates to his characters as though he knows them firsthand. There’s so much honesty in his performances! I must tell you, one day my parents had gone to dinner with me and my wife when me ran into Kamalji and his family. He actually walked up to our table to talk to my parents. They kept talking about that evening for the next six weeks. I learnt something invaluable from Kamalji that evening. I learnt the art of putting at ease those who are in awe of you. I saw Kamalji make my parents so comfortable. Now I know I’, going to learn a lot by acting with him. He has the qualities of true leadership. 

As a fan, would you like Kama Haasan and Rajinikanth to come together? You know if Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth are cast together it would be quite disastrous. The two actors’ iconic images are so strong their fan clubs would battle it out to the finish line. You know when Rajnikanth’s fan club felt A.R. Rahman had given better music in a Kamal Haasan starrer it was up in arms against Rahman . They wanted to break his car. In a film Ramya Krishnan playfully put her leg in Rajni’s face. She had to be given special protection for months for disrespecting an icon. 

You feel a sense of kinship with him? I can’t ever hope to be anywhere near him in terms of acting potential, screen presence, dancing abilities or comic timing. When we worked together in Anbe Sivam, it was an experience that defied description. I didn’t know how I’d behave with him or whether I could match his standards. But it was wonderful how he took me under his wings. Mr Kamal Haasan is the most dedicated actor I’ve come across. Though I’m far less experienced and talented, he never got patronizing. While doing Anbe Sivam Mr Kamal Haasan and I represented the purest form of the guru-shishya parampara. He gave his interpretations of scenes. And most of the time he was right. Understandably, he gets all the flak when one of his starrers doesn’t do well and all the praise if it does... And why not? A Kamal Haasan film will always be a Kamal Haasan film. I’d like to do the kind of roles that Mr Kamal Haasan does. Daringly different and always the unexpected. I hold him in the greatest esteem. I’d be happy if I achieve even a fraction of what he has.

Also Read: R Madhavan and Ajith Kumar come together in a rare photo; has garnered only love from social media fam

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