Nambi Narayanan and R Madhavan

Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 22, 2019)

R Madhavan kicked off his debut directorial Rocketry: The Nambi Effect last week. He plays the titular role of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) scientist Nambi Narayanan and admits that getting the look right was a “painfully long” process. “Prep involved sitting in a chair for around 14 hours for two days. It seemed easy to start with but as we went along, I realised just how tough it is to get even the hair right. But in the end, the effort was worth it,” Madhavan admitted. The look has been curated by Rohan Jagtap and Farah Tarapore under the guidance of Vikram Gaikwad.

Getting under the skin of the character was tough because he plays a 75-year-old in the film. “Nambi Narayanan sir is a good-looking man and it took me around two-and-a-half years to imbibe his charm and charisma and learn how to walk like him. It wasn’t enough just to look like him, I had to look like I was 75 years old. This one is probably one of the toughest characters I have played,” he acknowledged. And how did the scientist react to his screen avatar? “He couldn’t stop laughing, he was really amused. It’s eerie how similar we both look,” laughed Madhavan.

He was earlier supposed to co-direct the film with Ananth Narayan Mahadevan but the veteran filmmaker bowed out of the project recently. “This film has been with us for three-and-a-half years and the prep took longer than we imagined. We couldn’t delay it further and had to roll with it. Since Ananth ji’s prior commitments could not be postponed, he had to unfortunately bow out. He will be missed on the set,” informed the debutant director, confident that he would be able to carry the film on his shoulders. “I know the story that needs to be told but I’m nervous and actually trembling. At the same time, I’m feeling good about it and will go with the flow. I hope it turns out to be the way I had imagined it when I had written the script,” he concluded.