Known for iconic hits like 3 Idiots and OTT show Breathe, he is not a Khan or predominantly Bollywood. His earliest hit came with ‘Rehna Hai Terre Dil Mein’ in 2001 wherein he starred with Saif Ali Khan and Dia Mirza in one of the biggest movies of the early 2000s. Sealing his place as a fan favourite, R Madhavan quickly became the face that was everywhere in 2016. Starring opposite stars like Ajay Devgn in Shaitaan, he appeared in Ranveer Singh’s megahit Dhurandhar in 2025. By choosing one movie a year, or even less, Madhavan no longer remained Tamil cinema’s poster boy, but a serious power-packed presence on the silver screen.
However, that was not always the case. Dating back to 2011, the ‘Saala Khadoos’ actor took a four-year-long break before the film even started. Shooting in the scenic spots in Switzerland, Madhavan revealed how a farmer motivated this move in an interview with Unfiltered Entertainment.
‘I was really offended’
R Madhavan recalled his Swiss experience and what led to his sabbatical. “I was very disillusioned with the kind of work I was doing. I was shooting in Switzerland with orange pants and a green shirt for a Tamil song. I was in the middle of the road, and I saw this Swiss farmer, sitting there, looking at us with complete disdain. Sipping a cup of tea and thinking of what we were doing. I looked at him and thought, ‘You come to Chennai,’ and I’ll show you who I am.”
Explaining how hits like Vikram Vedha and Saala Khadoos landed after he spent his break in Chennai, Madhavan mentioned, “I was really offended, but then it struck me suddenly. I am literally dancing to other people’s tunes.” He added, “I am a public speaker, I know how to handle a gun, fly remote planes, ride horses, I do so many things. I am showing none of it in my movies. The only thing I was trying to do was to woo the audience, which would make me a superstar. I realised the mistake I was making.”
His wife, Sarita Burje, started to notice his sudden demotivation to work. She questioned him, “What’s wrong with you?” As she said that he was going to work like he wanted to come back from it. This struck a nerve as he explained, “Even the characters that I was playing… Like a hungry guy who is uneducated from a village and trying his best to make his career in cricket. I mean, from no angle do Arvind Swamy and I look like we are either uneducated or starved for food. Those are all the wrong things to do.” This came after he expressed how he was miscast in Thani Oruvan, along with co-star Swamy.
Madhavan’s 4-year break
During his break, Madhavan revealed that he focused on travelling to understand the real world. “I took a break. I wanted to understand where the country was going. I even stopped doing ad films, grew a beard, travelled a lot around Chennai, and other places in India. I talked to rickshaw guys, what really matters to them, what’s the real cost of stuff that bothers them. That insight for four years is probably what I’m eating off right now.”
One of the biggest insights he gained was the biggest loophole in filmmaking. He shared, “When I came back, I realised that my filmmakers, the ones who were making movies with me, were not as forward-thinking as me. Their ability to tell a story was still to impress their mentors. I started looking for new directors.”