R Madhavan breaks silence on why he took 4-year hiatus from acting: ‘I was very disillusioned with the kind of work…’

R Madhavan is on a roll with his recent role in Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar, which has been grabbing considerable attention. The actor has now opened up about how he had to take a break from acting earlier in his career and recalibrate his choice of roles.

R Madhavan on his 4-year acting hiatus

Speaking to Unfiltered Entertainment, R Madhavan said, “Before Saala Khadoos, I had to take a break because I was very disillusioned with the kind of work I was doing. I was shooting in Switzerland, wearing orange pants and a green shirt for a Tamil song. I was standing in the middle of the road when I saw a Swiss farmer sitting there, looking at us with complete disdain, sipping a cup of tea, and wondering what we were doing. I looked at him and thought, ‘You come to Chennai, and I’ll show you who I am.’”

He continued, “I was really offended, but then it suddenly struck me that I was literally dancing to other people’s tunes. I am a public speaker, I know how to handle a gun, fly remote planes, ride horses, and I do so many things. Yet I was showing none of it in my movies. The only thing I was trying to do was woo the audience to become a superstar. I realised the mistake I was making.”

Madhavan added that even the characters he was playing at one point were flawed choices. He explained that he had portrayed roles such as an uneducated, hungry man from a village and pointed out that neither he nor Arvind Swamy (referring to his character in Thani Oruvan) looked uneducated or starved, making such portrayals unrealistic. He further shared that his wife once asked him what was wrong with him and remarked that he seemed to go to work only to return from it, a comment that made him pause and reflect, and one that made a lot of sense to him.

Following this realisation, the actor decided to take a hiatus from acting. During this period, he travelled extensively, stopped acting even in advertisements, grew a beard, and interacted with common people.

After the break, Madhavan revealed that he had gained greater clarity about life. He said that when he returned, he realised that the filmmakers he had been working with were not as forward-thinking as he was, as their storytelling was still focused on impressing their mentors. This realisation led him to seek out and collaborate with new directors.