Happy Birthday R Madhavan: Interesting facts about 3 Idiots, RHTDM star

Ranganathan Madhavan, also known as R Madhavan, turned 51 years old today. He is one of those actors, who despite not having any godfathers in the movie business, made it big on his own merit.

Madhavan had humble beginnings. His father was a middle-class Tata Steel employee and mother, a bank manager. Maddy was born in Jamshedpur to a Tamil Brahmin family and raised in Bihar. From having represented India as a cultural ambassador in Canada to dabbling with the idea of joining the army to public speaking, he has done it all.

And on the eve of his 51st birthday, here are a few personal facts about Maddy that you did not know about.

Army Dreams

Madhavan was a hard-working and dedicated NCC cadet who aspired to join the Indian Army. He also flew down to England to train with the British Army, Royal Navy and, the Royal Air Force. However, this did not matter as Maddy missed the age cut-off of the Army by a mere six months.

Teaching Aspirations

Madhavan, despite being a BSc. in Electronics, also has a post-graduation degree in public speaking. After missing out on joining the Army, Madhavan started teaching personality development and public speaking classes and steered himself in that direction. He has also represented India at the Young Businessmen Conference in Tokyo in 1992.

PETA Association and Humanitarian Causes

Madhavan is a proud vegetarian and was voted the 'cutest male vegetarian' by PETA in a 2006 poll. However, he has always been a champion of animal rights. In fact, Maddy joined PETA right after his film debut. Madhavan and his family actively take part in a majority of PETA causes. Remember his letter to KFC in 2010?

Madhavan has had a busy year work-wise. He finished his film Maara with Dhilip Kumar. He also completed work on his directorial debut Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2021), which sees the actor play the titular role of rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan, who was accused of espionage.