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R. Madhavan

Indian actor, film director, and producer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ729982
Source-derived summary

Ranganathan Madhavan (born 1 June 1970) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, film producer, and film director who predominantly works in Tamil and Hindi cinema. Madhavan has appeared in over 70 films, he has won one National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards South, two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, and five SIIMA Awards. He was awarded Padma Shri by Government of India in 2026 in field of Art. Since September 2023, Madhavan is the President of FTII, Pune.

Madhavan attained his first break in Tamil cinema with Mani Ratnam's romantic drama Alai Payuthey (2000) and followed it with romantic roles in Gautham Vasudev Menon's directorial debut Minnale (2001) and Madras Talkies' Dumm Dumm Dumm (2001). He had major commercial successes in Run (2002), Thambi (2006) and Rendu (2006) and gained praise for his performances in Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Anbe Sivam (2003), Nala Damayanthi (2003) and Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004). Towards the late-2000s, Madhavan inclined to Hindi films with pivotal roles in three highly successful productions: the patriotic Rang De Basanti (2006), Mani Ratnam's biopic Guru (2007) and the comedy-drama 3 Idiots (2009), which went on to become the highest-grossing Indian film of all time at the time of its release. Simultaneously, he continued to appear in Tamil films like Evano Oruvan (2007) and Yavarum Nalam (2009).

After delivering two box-office hits with Tanu Weds Manu (2011) and Vettai (2012), Madhavan took an acting break for 3 years and bounced back in 2015. His comeback films – the romantic comedy Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015), the bilingual sports-drama Irudhi Suttru (2016) and the crime film Vikram Vedha (2017) all became critical and commercial successes.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “R. Madhavan” as indian actor, film director, and producer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970, 2026, 2023, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1970-06-01. The account is most persuasive where Madhavan, Indian and actor can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as indian actor, film director, and producer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q729982. VIAF identifies the subject as 88280446. The Library of Congress control number is no2009138567. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 2026, 2023 and 2000.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “R. Madhavan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow R. Madhavan primary sources, R. Madhavan archive and Madhavan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “R. Madhavan”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from R. Madhavan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.