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News Topical, Digital Desk : Bollywood actor and Padma Shri awardee R. Madhavan has proven his acting prowess from South to Bollywood. Over the past few years, his roles have shown a wide variety. R. Madhavan, who won hearts with roles like "Sala Khadoos" (Sala Khadoos), "Shaitan" (Shaitan), and now "Dhurandhar," has now revealed that he took a break from acting from 2011 to 2016.
Why did the actor take a break from acting?
Sometimes, even successful careers need a break. For R. Madhavan, this break lasted four years and changed everything. The actor has now opened up about why he stepped away from films at the peak of his popularity, admitting that he couldn't find himself in the work he was doing.
Madhavan wanted to do something different from romantic roles.
Madhavan took a break from acting in 2011 and stayed away until his comeback with "Sala Khadoos" in 2016. The film was a stark departure from the romantic roles of his earlier career and marked the beginning of a new creative phase, about which he explains, "Vikram Vedha came to me after a break. Before "Sala Khadoos," I had to take a break because I was very frustrated with the kind of work I was doing.
I was shooting a Tamil song in Switzerland, wearing orange pants and a green shirt. I was in the middle of the road and I saw a Swiss farmer sitting there, looking at us with complete disdain. He was sipping tea and wondering what we were doing. I looked at him and thought, 'Come to Chennai, I'll show you who I am.'
One incident changed everything
That encounter forced Madhavan to confront a difficult truth about his choices as an actor. He said, “I felt really bad, but then suddenly I realized. I'm literally dancing to someone else's tune. I'm a public speaker, I know how to shoot a gun, fly a remote control plane, ride a horse, I do a lot of things. But I'm not showing any of that in my films.”
The actor realized his mistake
At that point, he said, stardom became his sole focus. "I was just trying to woo the audience and become a superstar. I realized my mistake."
The wife noticed
Even those closest to him felt this distance. Madhavan recalled that his wife, Sarita Birje, noticed his distress. A conversation at home became a turning point. He said, "One day, my wife asked me, 'What's wrong with you?' She said, 'You go to work as if you want to come back.' That really made a lot of sense."
The actor visited India during his break.
During his four-year break, Madhavan deliberately distanced himself from the industry. He explained, “So, I took a break. I wanted to understand the direction the country was heading in. I even stopped doing ad films, grew a beard, and traveled extensively in Chennai and other parts of India. I talked to rickshaw pullers, what really mattered to them, what the real cost of the things that bothered them was.”
Searching for a new director
Looking back, he feels that period shaped him into the actor he is today. "That four-year period of understanding is probably what's helping me today. When I returned, my perspective on filmmaking had completely changed," he says. "When I returned, I realized that the filmmakers who were making films with me weren't as forward-thinking as I was. Their storytelling skills were still limited to impressing their mentors. I started looking for new directors."
This led to a major transformation in him, and Madhavan went on to play a variety of diverse, performance-oriented roles in films such as Vikram Vedha, Shaitan, Kesari 2, De De Pyaar De 2 and Dhurandhar. In 2026, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, for his contributions to Indian cinema.
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