4 min readHyderabadAug 2, 2026 11:10 AM IST
Before R Madhavan stepped on set to play GD Naidu, he had already built the film in his head. The actor created a two-hour-forty-minute audiobook with every dialogue spoken, music layered in and effects added. He studied decades-old 16mm footage shot at 12 frames per second to understand how the inventor moved. Madhavan also worked with the costume department to replicate the exact way Naidu wore his trousers. And he memorised every single scene and dialogue in the script, not just his own.
In an interaction with Cinema Vikatan, director Krishnakumar Ramakumar and key cast members of GDN opened up about what it was like to work with Madhavan on a film that was, by all accounts, a deeply personal obsession for the actor.
The preparation, once he committed, was unlike anything the team had seen. Ramakumar revealed that Madhavan created a complete audiobook of the film before production began, essentially a podcast-style audio version of the entire movie with dialogue, music and effects. “The movie plays fully for about 2 hours and 40 minutes, with all the dialogues spoken and described, music added, and effects too. When you listen to the audiobook, it feels like the movie’s actually playing,” Ramakumar said.
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What stood out most was Madhavan’s total command over the material. “If someone remembers all the dialogues, scenes, and the entire script, they could just come and do justice as a producer. Finding a lead actor who knows every bit of the script like this, a truly dedicated actor, that’s a big deal for me,” he said.
Where R Madhavan’s preparation became most visible was in the physical transformation. The team said he studied old 16mm videos of GD Naidu, the only surviving footage of the inventor, shot at a different frame rate than modern cameras. “Only those videos exist. But Madhavan tells me, when I come back as GD Naidu, instead of nodding like that, we should have a character that can twist the body a bit. Madhavan has seen it from the body language perspective. So, he tells me, Krishna, you watch, I’ll do something, you watch. And it looked just the same,” Ramakumar said.
The attention extended to wardrobe. Madhavan spotted how GD Naidu wore his trousers in old photographs and worked directly with the costume department to replicate the look. “GD Naidu’s gonna handle this slack from here, making sure it goes full slack. Maddy sir spotted it, did his thing, then told me to cut it here and do it like this on top, and asked me to get it done. GD Naidu and the wardrobe, Madhavan did everything himself.”
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The team also spoke about what Madhavan brought to the screenplay beyond acting. Krishnakumar Ramakumar said he initially tried to pack in every significant event from Naidu’s life, but Madhavan pushed back. “Madhavan said you have to give importance to the flow of the story. You can’t just force something because you want it,” the director recalled, adding, “Maddy sir said all this stuff is needed for the story, and some things aren’t necessary, you need to understand that. I learned a lot from him.”
The personal connection between Madhavan and GD Naidu went beyond the script. Ramakumar said the two men shared a genuine bond through their love of automobiles. “Both of them liked automobiles. They clicked personality-wise perfectly, and that connection came through strong with GD Naidu,” he said.
GDN, directed by Krishnakumar Ramakumar and co-written with Madhavan, chronicles the life of GD Naidu, often called the Edison of India, who invented India’s first indigenous electric motor, started the country’s first polytechnic college despite having studied only up to the third grade, and made pioneering contributions to automobiles, agriculture and medicine. The film also stars Sathyaraj, Jayaram, Priyamani, Dushara Vijayan, Aditi Balan, Vinay Rai, Karunakaran and Thambi Ramaiah. Music is composed by Govind Vasantha, with cinematography by Aravind Kamalanathan. The film is produced by Varghese Moolan Pictures in association with Madhavan’s Tricolour Films, and releases in theatres on August 7.
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