Madhavan says son Vedaant is ‘not the best in India’: ‘He’s an actor’s son who made a record’

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Unlike many star kids, actor-director R Madhavan’s son, Vedaant Madhavan, has chosen a path that’s not even remotely related to show business. Almost 20 now, Vedaant is a renowned freestyle swimmer who has already won several gold medals at prestigious championships. Interestingly, Madhavan and his wife, Sarita Birje, even relocated to Dubai during the COVID-induced lockdown to ensure that their son received quality training in the sport.

A fairly unfiltered person who rarely shies away from speaking his mind, Madhavan has often spoken candidly about his parenting style with Vedaant and how it compares to his own middle-class upbringing. While the actor-director carved his own path, defying his parents’ wishes, he is trying to be as supportive as possible of his son’s aspirations, rather than following in his parents’ footsteps.

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‘I flunked 8th grade’

Once, the actor-director recalled having a difficult conversation with his own father about his future. Madhavan said that at one point, his father even teared up, feeling that he had failed as a parent. Revealing that he flunked the 8th grade, he told Ranveer Allahbadia on his podcast, “I got just 39 per cent in Mathematics, and the school did not allow me to go to the next class. I was not a very good academic student, much to my parents’ disgust and dismay. They were like, ‘This South Indian Iyengar boy is totally useless, and he’s never going to get married.’ Their dream was that I would come back and join Tata Steel. That was their idea of success. My parents were heartbroken.”

Recalling a moment when his father got emotional, Madhavan said, “I went for an exchange programme in Canada. My father is not prone to dramatic outbursts. But when I returned, we were walking down the railway track. The last engineering college, too, had refused my admission because I didn’t have 70 per cent marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics. He had tears in his eyes. He looked at me and said, ‘What have I done wrong with you? What do you want to do?’ He’s a very dignified person.”

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‘I will not come to you for money or embarrass you’

The actor continued, “I looked at him. I was having 3 Idiots’ an ‘abba nahi manenge‘ conversation with him in the middle of those railway tracks. I replied, ‘Appa, I don’t know what I’m going to become. But I do know what I don’t want to do. I don’t want to do your job. If I have to sit at a table for 30 years in my life, working for somebody else, I’ll end up killing somebody because I’m not right for that. All I tell you is that I will not let you down. I will not embarrass you. I will not come to you for money, nor will I deprive you of your dignity. At least give me the liberty to try to follow the line that I want to. I don’t want to be an engineer. I don’t want to do a 9-5 job.’ He looked at me very strangely, wiped his tears, and said ‘Okay.’ I think he changed the way he looked at life from then on.”

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While Madhavan and Sarita are often hailed for not forcing their son into show business, and Vedaant is applauded for not going after the low-hanging fruit, the actor-director shared his displeasure at using his son to put others down. “Sarita and I are not very pleased about it, and we regret it. Comparing a child to another child… Memes are meant to be consumed. So, people do what it takes to make the meme consumable. At times, they don’t realise how much they hurt other people. When Vedaant gets compared to kids in the industry (star kids), it’s not something Sarita and I like. We don’t endorse it, forward it or acknowledge it.” He said he wants to inculcate the same middle-class values in his son.

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Vedaant’s ‘double-edged sword’

Admitting that Vedaant has achieved quite a bit at such a young age, Madhavan continued, “Yes, I am not going to take away from what he has achieved. He’s done what it takes to get the medals that he’s got. Being a celebrity’s child is not easy. He’s going to get a lot more attention than most of his friends, who might have achieved greater success at the same age as Vedaant. So, we do our best to try to promote the other guys as well. He isn’t the best in the country, but he’s definitely an actor’s child who has managed to create a national record.”

Calling the fame Vedaant is experiencing now a “double-edged sword,” he added, “If he considers himself worthy of all the attention, it’s his stupidity. Because it wouldn’t have been there if he were not my son. Thankfully, my son is wise enough to understand all that.”