R Madhavan on Saala Khadoos troubles: We're not Sanjay Leela Bhansali that some actor would give us two years of their life

From the docile Sharmaji in Tanu Weds Manu Returns to the badass coach in Saala Khadoos, R Madhavan has completely transformed himself for his upcoming bilingual film. Be it beefing up or growing his mane or training for over a year-and-a-half, Madhavan has done everything to get into the skin of his character. But it isn't just the actor in him which has put in all the sweat and blood; with Saala Khadoos, the 3 Idiots actor has made his foray into production too.

Taking baby steps into production hasn't been an easy task for the actor. With no takers for the film and no known face to play the lead female actor, Saala Khadoos had to face its own share of difficulties. Despite everything, Madhavan and director Sudha Kongara Prasad decided to stick to their decision and make their dream project come true.

Where Bollywood stars like Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar underwent months and months of training to fit into their respective characters for their sports-oriented films Mary Kom and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag respectively, Madhavan wanted his film to be real and didn't want to cast a known face.

"We wanted to take our chances. It was a conscious decision to rope in a boxer for the film. Priyanka (Chopra) had already done Mary Kom. Ab hum jaate toh kiske paas jaate ki ab aapko world class boxer banna hai and aapko 6-8 mahine dene hai ye banne ke liye. Aur vo hum jaisi team ko kyu dega. Hum koi Sanjay Leela Bhansali toh hai nahi ki they will give you two years of their life. Plus, like I said that I trained for a year-and-a-half in boxing and my boxing still did not look like it is world class, so I could not imagine any girl to hide the lack of boxing skills with camera angles. It would have made it into a false film. Ek do scene ke lie cheat kar sakte hai... but poori film ke liye cheat karna is impossible. So I needed a boxer and with Ritika, she was a revelation. You go in to see a boxer and you come out admiring the actor," says Madhavan.

Sudha, who worked on the script for over three years, approached Madhavan with the script and the actor was blown away by the subject. Though the two came together for the project, it took them a lot more time to make this project work. "So when I read the script, I was pretty much blown away. I knew what potential it had and I read it twice and said let's do it. It's our baby," says the actor.

But things weren't as easy as they seemed. In fact, Madhavan reveals that at one point, he decided to quit the film as things were just not falling into place. With the conflict of opinions, his frustration was building up with each passing day. "Even though I was ok with the script, I was having a tough time convincing the general producers that this was a very viable project. They always wanted some changes - like change the girl, change the director, they won't work in Hindi or you should get a heroine to play the role in Hindi, which is something I wasn't too sure the film required. I wanted to make the film absolutely real and for that, I needed everything to be real. That is what the film needed. I needed a world-class champion for the film. So Sudha and I, both of us were not ready to make that kind of changes and so every time the deal would happen, it would fall through at the last moment," says the 45-year-old actor.

He adds, "So, I was quite fed up. I was at my wits' end. I had stopped earning money for two years because of this film. I had gone into the training and I realised if I don't make any more money, I will have to start selling my assets to just survive, which is a sad thing. So I told myself that aaj ek din try karta hu, if it doesn't work, toh fir bhaadh mein jaaye ye project, we will do something else."

And it was then that Rajkumar Hirani came to the rescue of Madhavan and Sudha. "At the last minute, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't the only guy who thought this was a sensible script and I wanted to get some sort of endorsement from somebody. So I spoke to Rajuji and I told him that I want you to listen to this script and let me know what you think. He was very moved, he got up and hugged me and said I haven't heard a script like this in years. How do you want to me to get involved? How do I help to make this project happen? And I said, all I wanted was that reaction. Now I'll make it happen. And that's how he got involved in the project," says the Rang De Basanti actor.

If looking for producers was a Herculean task for Madhavan, finding the right boxer to play the lead role wasn't an easy job either. After auditioning some 100 boxers, the makers finally found their Madhi in Ritika Singh, a national level kick boxer.

"I was very adamant that it has to be a boxer. My friend Raj Kundra had an SFL team and I thought chalo waha shuru karta hu. Let me go and see ki waha koi aisi ladki milegi ya nahi. When I went to see a match, I saw this picture of Ritika on a big wall and I asked Raj yeh kaun hai. He said teri beti ki umar ki hai, tu chahta kya hai? I said tu samaj kya raha hai, mere bhai? Tu bas number de. Then I spoke to her and I wanted to know how she spoke and how confident she was. When I met her, it looked too unbelievable to be true. She was exactly the character we had written in the script - ungainly, unwomanly. So, I told my director that she should meet her. What we wanted was a girl who would look 17, who looked of my daughter's age, who knew how to box, who looked like a heroine, who had to act in two languages and who could give me two years of her life at the time of her life when she is 17. So it was just an impossible order. But once we found Ritika, it was a sign that we should make this film," reveals Madhavan.

The bilingual film is set to hit the screens on January 29, and Madhavan is quite nervous about the double release. "It is like being pregnant with twins. Mere ko pata hai ki delivery hai Friday ko and I am going to love them, because they are my kids. And I hope the world finds them as beautiful as I do. But as a producer, I am not nervous at all as I have Rajkumar Hirani covering my back. With his name attached and the kind of budget that this film is made on, there is not much to worry about. But for me, it is a huge pressure that I am associating my name with Rajkumar Hirani and he has given me complete creative freedom, so I am just worried that we live up to the expectations of a Rajkumar Hirani film. That's the biggest stress for me," signs off Madhavan.