R Madhavan had a career-defining role in the 2006 film Rang De Basanti, despite having only nine minutes of screen time. The actor played Flight Lt. Ajay Singh Rathod, who is killed when his MiG-21 jet malfunctions and crashes, and he made moviegoers cry. Madhavan recently discussed the film in a lighthearted conversation with Tanmay Bhat and others, and they all laughed when he mentioned the role’s brief duration.
In June, R Madhavan was asked by Tanmay Bhat if he was familiar with the events that transpired in the second half of Rang De Basanti and if he had seen that portion of the film. All of the co-hosts, including Rohan Joshi, burst out laughing before he could respond. R Madhavan, who was laughing along with them, said, “fantastic question Rang De Basanti was only valid for nine minutes, but it was very exciting for me.”
R Madhavan told Film Companion in an old interview that he only worked for the nine-minute role for eight days.” Siddharth was meant to be my role, but I couldn’t play him because I had long hair, so I ended up playing the pilot instead,” he explained further. Because of this, I had to assume the role of the pilot. I couldn’t play Siddharth because of my hair.” A big wake-up call for me, because people still talk about Rang De Basanti, people still associate my name with that movie, even though I only appeared in it for nine minutes. And these gentlemen, who worked so hard for a year and a half, while I only worked for eight days, I believe. And I realized that immortality in terms of being recognized as a character is dependent on how that character is played, as well as how that character is written and presented.”
He also stated that he worked very hard to get everything right in only nine minutes and to make the audience feel as if they’d ‘lost someone they knew.’
Rang De Basanti, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, was the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year and India’s official entry for the Golden Globe and Academy Awards in the Best Different Language Film category. In the lead roles were Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni, Kunal Kapoor, Alice Patten, and Soha Ali Khan.
R Madhavan interviewed Tanmay for his YouTube channel shortly after the release of his directorial debut, Rocketry: The Nambi Effect. R Madhavan plays aerospace engineer Nambi Narayanan in the film. It is based on the scientist’s life and how he was wrongfully accused of espionage.
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