Madhavan is the latest showbiz celebrity to be struck by the COVID virus. But if you think he is depressed about it, far from it. When I connected with him on Friday morning he was upbeat. “Haanji bin bulaye mehmaan aa gaya (the unwelcome guest is here). The only problem is, I have to be confined to my home for fifteen days. Otherwise, there is no problem at all. Thanks so very much for your concern. I am feeling much better and am being well taken care of. I am enjoying this enforced resting period. It’s God’s will. I normally won’t dream of being without work. But this time I’ve actually welcomed the time off. ”
Madhavan was in the midst of the post-production work for his biopic on scientist Nambi Narayanan when Covid struck. Says Maddy, “We are determined to do justice to the extraordinary life of Nambi Narayanan. He is one of the many unsung heroes of our country who deserves to be anointed with a worthy film.”
In 1994 Narayanan a space-research scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) had been falsely accused of espionage. Says Madhavan, “We are going into every aspect of Narayanan’s life without apology. There’s really no point in doing a bio-pic unless the complete truth is told.”
The Nambi Narayanan biopic is being made simultaneously into Hindi, Tamil and English. Some years ago Madhavan was signed to play another Tamil academic genius, the mathematician Ramanujan. But the deal fell through and the role finally went to Dev Patel who looked as Tamil as Shah Rukh Khan in Ra.One.
Says Madhavan gently, “It’s not important for an actor to be culture-specific. I mean Meryl Streep was not Polish, was she, when she did Sophie’s Choice. And Ben Kingsley is hardly Gujarati. But he played Mahatma Gandhi flawlessly. It’s important to capture the essence, the soul of the character. I am trying to do that in the Nambi Narayanan biopic.”
Image source: Instagram/actormaddy