Actor R Madhavan has been signing and working in multiple films in various languages. In 2025 alone, his busiest year so far, the actor was seen in six films. However, there was a time when Madhavan took a four-year-long break from acting to take a step back and introspect his life and career.
Sharing details into what transpired during the time in 2011, the actor explained the moment that flipped the switch for him internally. "Vikram Vedha happened to me after a sabbatical. 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 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 about what we were doing. I looked at him and thought, 'You come to Chennai, and I'll show you who I am,'" he shared, in an interview with Unfiltered Entertainment.
The actor noted that while he felt "offended", he realised that he was "dancing to other people's tunes." "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 woo the audience, which would make me a superstar. I realised the mistake I was making," he elaborated.
It was during the time that Madhavan's wife Sarita Burje asked him about his disinterest in work. "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 look like we are either uneducated or starved for food. Those are all the wrong things to do. One day, my wife asked me, 'What’s wrong with you’. She said that you are going for work like you want to come back from it.' That actually made a lot of sense," he said.
In 2016, Madhavan made a comeback with Saala Khadoos (Irudhi Suttru) in Tamil). During his break, he travelled across India to understand the world. "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," he said.
The actor came back with a clarity and better understanding of scripts and stories. "When I came back, I realised that my filmmakers, the ones who were making movies with me, were not as forward thinking as me," he remarked, before adding, "Their ability to tell a story was still to impress their mentors. I started looking for new directors."
Madhavan has been receiving rave reviews for his performance in the recent hit Dhurandhar, starring Ranveer Singh in the lead. The film's second part Dhurandhar: The Revenge is scheduled for a theatrical release on 19 March 2026. The other films the actor was part of this year were Shaitaan, Hisaab Barabar, Test, Kesari Chapter 2, Aap Jaisa Koi and De De Pyaar De 2. The actor was recently honoured with the prestigious Padma Shri on the eve of Republic Day.