I went through the lowest point in my life for Saala Khadoos: R Madhavan

He has dedicated three years of his life for this film and is now set to release on January 29. R Madhavan’s sheer faith in the script and director Sudha Kongara saw him produce Saala Khadoos in Hindi and get Rajkumar Hirani on board. The trailer of the Hindi-Tamil bilingual has created a buzz thanks to the actor’s new avatar and his role as a boxing coach. Here, Madhavan opens up about the film and what he went through to make the film.

There’s hype suddenly around you and Saala Khadoos...
I would like to take the credit completely for myself  but the truth of the matter is if I had come with any other film, I don’t think the anticipation level would have been the same. It is the very reason why I took the sabbatical to work for my look  — mostly the script motivated me and the director. I think half the hype is because of my new avatar.

Tell me about transforming yourself for the role?
Complacency sets in when you do what you’ve been doing well and it’s very easy to walk down that path. I get bored easily and I was getting bored with myself. My wife told me that she could see the passion go out of my eyes. She said, “Maddy, if you’re that bored, change your profession or revamp yourself.” I needed somebody to tell me that. The mental makeover was far tougher than the physical one. It was really tough to push myself into a corner, stop feeling like a star, be humiliated and humbled, make myself unrecognisable and travel with the public. I just felt what it was to be a common man all over the world. I started rebuilding myself. The hard work was very tough but it was great knowing that one is capable of doing that.

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When the director Sudha Kongara narrated the script, did you think it would be a life-changing role?
Oh yes! Right away. My instinct  has been my greatest tool. Scripts that other heroes don’t touch or see the light of day are the ones I knew will work for me. In this movie, I’m doing the most anti-hero thing. I’ve grey hair, I’m seen in bed with a woman who’s not my wife, I’m letting the heroine say you’ve a bulky stomach but a cute smile. When the script comes to you, it just motivates you to take these leaps of faith which you normally wouldn’t do. That’s why I felt I should put not just my blood and soul but also my money in it to make sure it sees the light of day in the glory with which it was written. Full marks to Sudha for having been able to pull that off.

This is your first time with a female director.
When you imagine a woman director, you always think she’ll come to you with a emotional story. Sudha, came up with a script on women’s boxing in India. You’re obviously going to read the script with a little bit of apprehension. But the amount of research and interviews she had done and the visuals she had included in the presentation to substantiate the story was astounding. That I didn’t expect from a female director or any director for that matter. There was no way I was going to let something like this go.

Why did you want Rajkumar Hirani on board?
I told Sudha I’ll take responsibility of seeing the film go on floors and producing it. I then tried to find people who will see the film in the same light as me and finance the film as well. But whoever I went to couldn’t see the film the same way. No one was willing to invest in the film as is. It was then that I came to the lowest point in my life and career. I had completely depleted my bank account and was living on wafers. Raju Hirani is a close friend and someone I respect a lot and taking the script to him would have been the obvious thing to do. He kept asking me what I was working on and he asked me why I was talking a sabbatical. He was in the middle of PK so I told him I didn’t want to bother him. I was talking to this dear friend of mine in the US who’s like a brother and I told him I’m going to drop this film. He had seen me every step of the way in this film as I was staying at his place in the US for my training regimen. He told me that I couldn’t drop the project and that there was nothing called failure but just various degrees of success. He said if I don’t take the risk now then I wouldn’t the next time round. He told me, “Maddy, see it to the end. Irrespective of the outcome, you’ll benefit from it in the long run. ” That afternoon I made up my mind to meet Rajkumar Hirani but I didn’t want to put any pressure on him. I narrated the story to him in 20 minutes — the defining 20 minutes of this film. He said he hadn’t heard a script like this in 15 years. Raju asked me, “Tell me, what do you want me to do for this film.” I told him to be the wind beneath our wings and that we would make the film and if he thought it was worthy of his name, then to help us get it released. But he did much more than that. Sashikanth of Y Not Studios also had the exact same reaction and he wanted to produce the film in Tamil. He stood like a rock and when Rajuji happened to come on board, I think it was worth all the effort.

Why cast a real-life boxer (Ritika Singh) instead of an actress?
We wanted someone who was a world champion boxer, around 17, who knew how to act, whose parents would allow her to act, hold her own, look like a heroine and speak in Hindi and Tamil. To find a girl who can speak in Tamil is a big challenge in Chennai. My friend Raj Kundra invited me to the Super Fight League. I saw Ritika there and  knew in 15 minutes that I had found my heroine. When Sudha met her, she was euphoric. Ritika took to acting like fish takes to water and reiterated what I always believed in — acting is an innate skill. I believe that the power of the right script draws only the right people to it and this film has done that over and over.

Shah Rukh Khan also played a coach in Chak De! India. Do you think there’ll be comparisons?
Obviously. The comparisons will be in the filmy section of the audience and the filmy people. We’ve had 40 screenings but when no one came up with Chak De! India. Secondly, the first day first show audiences who would have seen that film then aren’t the same ones today. Thirdly, there’s no similarity in the form, sport or characterisation themselves. My movie is more about the relationship between a man and a woman — two broken people who support each to get to the glory they are capable of. Chak De! Is about a man who was vindicated after he was assumed to be a traitor. If we are to compare every film that had a coach, then even Million Dollar Baby is one.