R Madhavan’s film career is an inspiration to all – A look at the highlights of his career on his 55th birthday.

R. Madhavan was born on 1 June 1970 in North East India where he grew up and completed his education. He won a scholarship as a cultural ambassador to India in Canada where he stayed for a year before returning to India

He began his acting career playing various roles in Hindi TV serials, including numerous lead roles. His first appearance in a feature film was for the Hindi film Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin where he played a minor role. He also had a minor role in the English film Inferno. His first fully fledged role in Indian cinema was in the Kannada film Shanti Shanti Shanti where he shared the lead role with Abbas. The failure of this film at the box-office denied Madhavan any recognition. He was subsequently signed on to play the lead role in a Hindi film, but that film was permanently shelved.

Success eventually found him when Maniratnam signed him on to play the lead role in the 1999 film Alai Paayuthey. Madhavan had earlier failed an audition to play Prakash Raj’s role in Iruvar, but Maniratnam thought that Madhavan’s eyes looked too young for the role. Alai Paayuthey was a huge hit and opened many doors for Madhavan.

His second film as lead, Ennavale, did not set the box-office on fire, but he enjoyed a megahit with his next film, Minnale, the debut directorial of Gautham Vasudev Menon where Madhavan once again shared the screen with Abbas.

This was followed by a critically acclaimed role in Maniratnam’s production Dumm Dumm Dumm directed by Azhagam Perumal.

There were huge expectations of his role in K.Balachander’s 100^th film, Parthale Paravasam, but the film failed at the box-office and critics were unimpressed by any of the film’s performances.

Things were looking bleak for Madhavan, as his next film – the Hindi remake of Minnale, also failed at the box-office, but he bounced back with a strong role in Maniratnam’s Kannathil Muthamitaal, a film that won six national awards and numerous other international awards.

This was followed by his first action role in Lingusamy’s Run. This role, together with his role in Kannathil Muthamitaal won for him the Tamil Nadu State Award for Best Actor.

The following year, he co-starred with Kamalhaasan in the landmark film, Anbe Sivam. The film won intense acclaim for film critics but unexplainably failed at the box-office. Despite this, Madhavan still savours the role and his experience of working with Kamalhaasan.

Despite the failure of Anbe Sivam , Kamalhaasan was so impressed by Madhavan that he cast him in the lead role of his lavish home production, Nala Dhamayanthi.

Then followed moderate success for each of his subsequent films – Priyamaana Thozhi, Jay Jay and Lesa Lesa.

After moderate success with K.S. Ravikumar’s Ethiri, Madhavan once again delighted fans and critics with an overpowering role in Maniratnam’s multi-starrer, Aayudhi Ezhuthu. This film won for Madhavan the Filmfare Award for the Best Supporting Actor in a Tamil film.

After moderate success with the English-Malayalam crossover film Nothing But Life, Madhavan starred in Priyasakhi, a film that became the first Tamil film to be dubbed into Zulu/IsiZulu.

After the Hindi remake of Nala Dhamayanthi, Madhavan starred in Seeman’s Thambi,  a masala film where he played an unrefined character to much acclaim.

He played his first dual role in Sundar C’s Rendu and had moderate success with Balasekaran’s Aarya.

He then scripted, produced and acted in Evano Oruvan. Despite a positive response from critics, the film did not do well and his subsequent film for Seeman, Vazhthukal, followed the same fate.

His horror film, Yavarum Nalam was a hit and he had moderated success with Guru en Aallu.

He then turned to Hindi cinema, had a moderate hit with Sikhandar but then scored a huge hit with the film 3 Idiots, a film thatenkoyed lavish praise from critics and which was remade into Tamil as Nanban.

Madhavan briefly returned to the Tamil screen in an important role in Kamalhaasan’s Manmadhan Ambu which unfortunately did not register a hit at the box-office.

He enjoyed success and critical praise for his next Tamil film, Vettai, where he co-starred with Aarya.

After a break from Tamil films – partially because of an injury and partially because of his work in Hindi films and an English film, Madhavan returned to the Tamil screen with the bilingual venture, Irudhi Suttru, the film that marked the directorial debut of Sudha Kongara. Madhavan got personally involved with marketing the film and also did a lot of physical preparation for his role in the film. It was also Madhavan who discovered and introduced mixed martial arts artist, Rithika Singh in the lead role. The film was a box-office hit and a bigger hit with the critics.

Madhavan replicated this success with his next film Vikram Vedha directed by the husband and wife duo, Pushkar-Gayathri.

This began an experimental stage, with Madhavan appearing in various languages, including an Amazon web series and Nishabdham an experimental film initially meant to be a silent film. This was followed by an unusual role in the film Maara where his performance enjoyed unanimous praise from critics.

Then came R.Madhavan’s dream project – his first directorial – which was more than five years in the making. Titled Rocketry, the film was a biopic on the famous Nambi Narayanan and was made simultaneously in several languages. The film won widespread praise and earned him multiple awards.

Madhavan’s last film, Test where he co-starred with Nayanthara, Siddharth and Meera Jasmine opened to mixed reviews.

Madhavan is a vegetarian and actively promotes PETA. Apart from this, Madhavan has invested a lot of his time and money into various charitable and humanitarian projects and programmes.

Madhavan is happily married to costume designer, Sarita. Their son, Vedaant, is now an international swimmer.