Madhavan was born in Jamshedpur, India, to a private-firm owner Ranganathan and bank worker Saroja. Devika Ranganathan, Madhavan’s sister, is a software engineer settled in the U.S. At the age of 18 his college entrusted him with the responsibility of representing India as a Cultural Ambassador to Canada.
A year later he and three others from his college were sent to Britain as army cadets and received training in the royal army, navy, and air force.
After attending a 10 day course on public speaking, he met Saritha, an Air Hostess and both got married 3 years later. Their first child, a son, Vedaant, was born in 2006.
Unlike other prominent actors in India, Madhavan began to act after marriage, at the age of twenty-nine, and his short career has seen performances in diverse roles. He has received several Filmfare Awards in various categories.
Madhavan’s first major film appearance was in 2000s romantic film, Alaipayuthey, in which he played a husband going through the trauma of marriage. In the 2002 blockbuster Kannathil Muthamittal, he portrayed a father of an orphaned child alongside Simran. He then played the role of an action hero, for the first time in the successful project, Run (2003) and, the year after, won critical acclaim as a henchman in Mani Ratnam’s film, Aayitha Ezhuthu, his role in which earning him a Indian National Film Award nomination. In 2007, Madhavan set up his own production company, Leukos Films, which will distribute several of his forthcoming films.
Madhavan has taken an activist role in supporting various political and social causes. He appeared in PETA advertising, campaigning against cruelty towards animals, and has promoted vegetarianism causes.
A vegetarian and animal lover, he owns two dogs, and a parrot. He is fluent in English, Hindi, and Tamil.
Before making his appearance on the tinsel screen, he was popular on the idiot box on Sony’s ‘Deal Ya No Deal’. He subsequently also appeared as the main character in a mobile game.
He made his debut with ‘Inferno’ in 1998, and since then acted in nearly 40 movies in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Kannad. He is popularly known as the ‘chocolate hero’.