- R Madhavan was expected to study engineering and join Tata Steel like his father
- He told his father he did not want a routine engineering job in Jamshedpur
- His father was moved to tears and questioned what he had done wrong
Remember R Madhavan, aka Farhan Qureshi's emotional conversation with his father in 3 Idiots? It captured a relatable family moment: a parent's idea of a secure future vs. a child's dream of choosing their own path. In real life too, Madhavan had lived through something remarkably similar himself.
Madhavan was expected to follow a conventional career path. His father, Ranganathan, was a management executive at Tata Steel and wanted his son to study engineering, work for the Tatas and eventually settle down in Jamshedpur.
But Madhavan had other plans.
In an interview with M9 News, Madhavan recalled telling his father that he had no interest in becoming an engineer. The actor said, “I didn't want to live a routine life in Jamshedpur and do the same thing for 30 years in a row, which my dad did with a great amount of ease. That was not me.”
“I remember telling him, ‘I don't know what I want to be, appa, but I do know that I don't want to be an engineer, doing the same job…”
His father was so upset that he was moved to tears and asked Madhavan, “I wonder what I have done wrong with you.”
Madhavan also spoke about how his neighbours made his parents feel guilty.
He said, “Since both my parents were working, and nobody was taking care of me or doing my homework, and both my sister and I mostly just played wildly on the ground, everybody in my society thought we two were done. They assumed we would never succeed in life. My parents were constantly made to feel guilty that they were both working and ‘neglecting' the children.”
R Madhavan's latest release, GDN, is currently running in theatres. The Krishnakumar Ramakumar directorial is a biopic of inventor and engineer GD Naidu. Sathyaraj, Jayaram, Priyamani, and Dushara Vijayan are also part of the film.
