Watching him at work and the way in which he lives out of suitcases can give you a bout of motion sickness.


Seriously… the roller coaster ride simply doesn't stop for Madhavan. If he isn't acting, he is busy with endorsements, promotions, being guest at functions. And then there's this bane of meetings, discussions etc.

After spending New Year with family and relatives in Dubai, Madhavan was in Chennai enroute to Mumbai and his day is choc-o-bloc with promotions of Vettai his Pongal release. Excerpts from a freewheeling chat with Sridevi Sreedhar

Did you enjoy working in Vettai as it is after a long time that you are doing a mass commercial film?
I was not too confident in the beginning but my director Lingusamy, with whom I hav done Run earlier, put me at ease. To be very frank, I had forgotten acting in Tamil formula films, where I have to run, fight and dance. But trust me; I got into the groove with the support of Lingu and Raju Sundaram.

In your interviews, you had said that you were waiting for good scripts to happen. What was it that made you accept Vettai?
When Lingu met me and told me that he had a script with me in mind, I politely refused stating my knee problems but he surprised me by saying that he will wait till I am fine. Later he narrated the story and 10 minutes into it I knew that I was going to do it. Lingu is a past master at screenplay and you will not have time to think, while watching the film as it is a racy entertainer.

How was it working with Arya?
I was signed first for Vettai. Unlike others I am the last guy to worry that the film has another hero, as I have worked in many multistarrers. When Lingu told me that Arya will play my brother, I was excited as I knew him well. Arya is a live wire, frank, focussed, hard working and above all a good friend and I am going to miss him and the Vettai unit.

What is your personal opinion about the film?
It will be a heart-warming, sweet film with all the masala associated with commercial cinema.

Vettai clashes with Nanban a remake of your cult classic 3 Idiots. Do you regret not being a part of it?
(Laughs) I have a simple logic – Glad I did 3 Idiots, Glad I'm not a part of Nanban.
When I did 3 Idiots I prepared myself for 2 years to do the role of a 21 year old student, which was not easy. When Shankar sir spoke to me about Nanban, I told him that at 41 it's not easy for me to get my mind set of a student and he wanted to start the film as early as possible.
I liked the Nanban trailer and I'm sure that it will live up to expectations. Today, I have no regrets and I will watch Nanban before I watch Vettai.

Tell us something about the girls in Vettai- Sameera and Amala?
Amala and Arya make a perfect pair, while Sameera and me match as far as our chemistry goes. Amala is very promising and she will go places if she chooses her projects correctly. Sameera has done an awesome job and she has a well-written role.

When will you sign a new Tamil film or are you going to concentrate in Bollywood?
I am open to good projects, be it Hindi or Tamil. Right now, I've completed Jodi Breakers with Bipasha and is joining the promotion of the film after which I will get a small break before i start work on a biography of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan for which I am putting on weight.