Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; January 24, 2018)

R Madhavan, who started his acting career on TV before venturing into cinema, is now all set to make his debut on the digital platform with the web series Breathe. “I’ve played a baddie in Tamil films. But this will be my first outing as a dark character in the Hindi space. I don’t want to reveal much about the character except that it will be difficult for the audience to choose sides. You will be driven by conditioning and what is socially correct to decide,” he says mysteriously.

For those who have seen the trailer, it is evident that the 47-year-old plays a distraught father whose son is suffering from a terminal disease and needs an organ transplant. Consequently, people of a particular blood group get killed randomly.

As Madhavan has a son in real life, was it difficult for him also to choose sides? “Yes, because I know my character’s actions may not be morally correct, but what do you do when you are faced with something like that? God forbid anybody who has to make a choice like that, but epics are based on conflicts and this is one,” he reasons.

Ask him what prompted him to try the digital medium and he confesses that he wasn’t keen to embrace it so soon. “I always knew this is another big avenue for entertainment as India and China are two of the largest consumers of smart phones and digital right now. But I was waiting for the right opportunity because everyone who is watching web content is seeing international content as well. If we have to give them something, it has to be as good as if not better than foreign content. When I heard the script, I was impressed. I decided that if I have to take this huge step, it has to be with this series,” he explains.

However, Madhavan found that shooting for the web was tougher than that for cinema, so much so that he would write notes and maintain a diary! “For a film, you only have to prepare for two hours of content. This was 360 minutes that is equivalent to four movies and you are shooting at the same time frame as that of a feature. Hence, it was tough to keep track of the emotional graph, the story and performance. The story is so wide that the growth in the emotion has to be minuscule but apparent. So, I wrote notes in a diary and made sure I picked up (expressions) and dropped them at the right places. It was challenging and exciting,” he says.

The actor has also been in the news for the remake of his Tamil blockbuster Vikram Vedha. Speculations were rife that Shah Rukh Khan would play one of the lead roles — either a cop or a gangster — in the Hindi version. “I don’t know where this news came from. All I can say is that the remake is happening and right now, the dialogues are being written. It is backed by the same man who has produced the Tamil film, in association with somebody else and will be helmed by the director of the original,” he clarifies.

Ask him if he will reprise his role, that of an inspector in the remake, and he says, “It’s a tough call to take. Once I have done a film in another language, then I should look at the reasons for doing it in Hindi. And I’m still trying to justify to myself about how inventive it would be? In any case I don’t even know if they will approach me,” he shrugs. So, who would suit the roles of Vikram and Vedha? “Any of the top stars can play it. It requires a lot of studying of the characters and flair to play Vikram or Vedha. The casting has to be appropriate as it was in Tamil,” he states.

The 3 Idiots actor also has three Hindi movies lined up — a biopic on the controversial rocket scientist S Nambi Narayanan, the space odyssey Chandamama Door Ke and an untitled movie, which will see him as the main antagonist.