R Madhavan: “My mom and dad really wanted me to be an engineer”

R Madhavan said that his parents didn’t take it too well when he informed them that he was not cut out for a conventional job. Indeed, his dad was ‘driven to tears’ and asked if he fell short in raising him well.

During an appearance on the YouTube channel Curly Tales, Madhavan was inquired as to whether his family was cheerful with regards to him pursuing acting as a career. “Oh, no, the scene from 3 Idiots is right out of my life. My mom and dad really wanted me to be an engineer and work for the Tatas and settle down there (Jamshedpur, where he was born). But I knew early on in my life that… I did not know what I was going to be but I did know that 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,” he said.

“They were disappointed, they were distraught, they were, in fact, dismayed. My dad was driven to tears. I remember a line he said, ‘I wonder what I have done wrong with you’. I will never forget that. 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.’ He was stunned but I think that day, he knew that I will take care of myself, that I am a survivor,” he added.

Right now, Madhavan is occupied with promotions of the Netflix romantic comedy, Decoupled, co-featuring Surveen Chawla. It will begin streaming on December 17.