Madhavan On cloud nine

R Madhavan is basking in the success of Tanu Weds Manu. He knows he has hit the jackpot once again with this one. Amid congratulatory calls and a hundred interviews, we catch up with the actor who exudes happiness. "I am very happy," says Madhavan, beaming on the phone line. "I choose my films with care. I do just one film at a time and put my heart and soul into it. So I am delighted beyond bounds!"Tanu Weds Manu, directed by debutant Aanand Rai, is about an NRI doctor Manoj Sharma aka Manu who wishes to marry an Indian girl. Unlike what is expected of a typical NRI, Manu is a simple boy who would like to marry a quiet and sensible girl. He comes to Kanpur to 'see' Tanuja Trivedi aka Tanu under family pressure. Tanu is a rebel who lives by her own rules and hates the thought of an arranged marriage. And the twain meet! When told that playing Manu must have not come naturally for a person known for his pranks, Madhavan chuckles, "Yes I am an absolute prankster. I have the good-boy looks and hardly seem to be the sort who would make mischief but it's a different story for anyone who has met me! So Manu was really the toughest character I have played. He was just too noble for me."Reports had suggested that so impressed was Madhavan with the film's concept that he had agreed to reduce his actor's fee for the job. Madhavan denies this. "I have taken my full amount. We actors will bend over backwards to do a role if we are kicked about it. This film depended on Tanu and Manu and I was dead sure about the content. I put in a lot of myself in every film of mine but I don't see why I should short sell myself for any," comes the candid answer.Ask him which of the reports is true — that he recommended Kangna Ranaut for the role of Tanu or that the two shared cold vibes on the sets — and he quickly points out that he did recommend Kangna for the role. "I had worked with Kangna once before and knew her enough to realise that she fitted Tanu to a T. But all such stories like Salman Khan was part of our film and his role was edited out, that it was earlier titled Manu Weds Tanu and that Kangna and I had problems were merely hyperventilated PR activity." Does he endorse such 'hyperventilated PR activity'? "I will do anything to get my film space. But I can't keep endorsing untruths," says the actor defiantly.Two years after the release of 3 Idiots, does the actor find it difficult to match the scale of that film? "Of course, it is difficult though not impossible. Not just for me but for any of us involved with that project, it will be difficult to match it singly. 3 Idiots was a joint effort of Raju (Hirani), Aamir, Kareena, Boman, Omi, Sharman and me," he says. But the South superstar is happy with the way his Bollywood career is poised. "I have done some eight or nine films.Everybody remembers me in each of them and I am still getting the remuneration I ask for. I have chosen quality over quantity and it has been just wonderful," he says.

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