Mad over Maddy

Mad over Maddy
Viveck Vaswani

I was in Chennai last week to sign a friend of mine to act in my new film Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar. His name is R Madhavan and he used to work on TV. He was the Ghar Jamai in the serial of the same name. And he was in Saaya as well. Now, I am not too clued in to what’s hot on TV, but I have known Maddy for some time now. We e-mail one another once in a while since he now lives in Chennai, and I have always thought that he was one of the few sane and educated people in the business; and a very good actor. I figured that Jimmy Shergill, Sanjay Suri and Madhavan would be magic together and a great musical would be born.

But nothing prepared me for the Madhavan mania that Chennai is riding on right now. From the time you enter the city, huge and I mean huge hoardings of Madhavan greet you. He’s the new Pepsi boy and the hoardings Say ‘Pepsi brings Madhavan to your home’. It’s the same all the way to the hotel: Maddy, Maddy, MADDY. So I asked the receptionist at the lobby about him. I said I’m here since I have to meet Madhavan at your Coffee Shop. I might as well stay here. Suddenly I was an instant VIP. Instant upgrade. Wow! And the whole history. Mani Ratnam saw him on TV and signed him for Alay Payuthe. The film is Mani Ratnam’s biggest hit to date. And then came film no. two a name that I just can’t pronounce and with film no. three Minnale Tamil filmdom’s latest and hottest star is born. Minnale stars Maddy with Abbas and Reema Sen and has been riding a crest in the South for five weeks now. And I wondered how we would meet. As once upon a time colleagues, co-stars on TV, superstar and producer? We had a warmrapport then; now, it was almost like another Shah Rukh story for me (which is actually another story, so we will leave it for next time).

He was shooting at AVM Studios for a new Pepsi promo of his new film the Mani Ratnam produced Doom Doom Doom.And he called me on my cellphone and invited me to the set. It was the same voice, I thought, on the way to AVM. But will he do my film? Will the price that I had thought of be acceptable to him? Will he have dates? And as I reached the studio I was almost ready to tell him, ‘hey, let’s do another film together later. My films build stars. You are already one. I can’t handle stars. Never have. I work with them when they are on the way up. Or even on their way down. I’m a cool person. Can’t take stress, tantrums, cancellations. I love my movies. I don’t make proposals.’

And I was there on the Pepsi set. And there he was; same lop-sided grin, same tousled hair, same sparkling eyes. And he was glad to see me. We sat through the night. He heard the script, loved it. We talked dates; money; commitments; other films that he was doing for other producers, Hindi films. And we made our decisions. No, I wasn’t dealing with a star, I was dealing with a sensible actor, who made sense and demanded sense. Is he doing the film? Wait for the announcement.