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R. Madhavan, in a CC BY 3.0 photograph from Wikimedia Commons
Photograph: Bollywood Hungama. Licence: CC BY 3.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons, File:Madhavan Saala Khadoos 2 (cropped).jpg. Licence confirmed on the Commons file page on 22 October 2026. ShowBuzz resized the file and converted it to WebP for page speed, and did not otherwise alter it.

Celebrities / Actor

R. Madhavan

Actor, writer, producer and director

Ranganathan Madhavan, known as R. Madhavan, is an actor, screenwriter, producer and director who works mainly in Tamil and Hindi cinema. He has appeared in more than 70 films. Since September 2023 he has been President of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, and in 2026 the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri.

His break came in Tamil with Mani Ratnam's romance Alai Payuthey (2000), followed by Minnale and Dumm Dumm Dumm (both 2001). Run (2002), Thambi and Rendu (both 2006) were commercial hits. Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Anbe Sivam and Nala Damayanthi (both 2003) and Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004) won him praise.

From the late 2000s he took key parts in three big Hindi successes: Rang De Basanti (2006), Mani Ratnam's Guru (2007) and 3 Idiots (2009), which became the highest-grossing Indian film of its time. He has won a National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards South, two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and five SIIMA Awards. On this guide he appears in Rang De Basanti and 3 Idiots.

He made his directing debut with Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2022), playing the rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan, and it won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. He played a boxing coach in Irudhi Suttru (2016) and won Best Actor at the Filmfare, IIFA and SIIMA awards.

Credits in detail

3 Idiots (2009, Hindi) was released 25 December 2009. R. Madhavan is in the cast, under director Rajkumar Hirani. The cast also includes Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and Kareena Kapoor Khan.

Rang De Basanti (2006, Hindi) was released 26 January 2006. R. Madhavan is in the cast, under director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The cast also includes Aamir Khan, Siddharth and Sharman Joshi.

Known for

Alai Payuthey · Rang De Basanti · 3 Idiots

Work on ShowBuzz

  • 3 Idiots

    Film · 2009. Three engineering students, a cruel definition of success, and a missing friend. Rajkumar Hirani directs. It is loosely drawn from Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone; the film and the novelist later fought in public about how loose that debt was. The film itself is still the one families rewatch.

  • Rang De Basanti

    Film · 2006. A British filmmaker comes to India to shoot the story of Bhagat Singh’s friends and ends up casting a group of Delhi students who do not think the past has anything to do with them. A. R. Rahman scored it. It opened on Republic Day 2006.

Sources