Tamil-Hindi superstar Madhavan thought he would quietly turn 50 on June 1 during the lockdown when everything was shut down.

Little did he know!

“I thought it would be a quiet birthday during this lockdown. But to my surprise, I was inundated with birthday wishes. It’s been a huge emotional rollercoaster ride for me. But totally in a happy positive way,” says Maddy.

Fans sent Madhavan videos from all across the world. “I’ve never experienced such a collective surge of love before. But the biggest surprise was the 90-minute video put together by my wife Sarita and my son Vedant. It left me simply overwhelmed. Really, I couldn’t ask for more.”

Since his birthday Madhavan has been diligently trying to reply to every birthday message. “And I still have around 800 messages to reply to. It’s been really crazy. And that’s a good thing, I guess.”

Last year for his birthday Madhavan was in Belgrade without his family, far from home.

“So this year I guess I am happier at 50 than I was at 49,” quips the actor who has done it all from television to Mani Ratnam.

Never fearful of breaking moulds, way back in the early 1990s when television was still in its infancy Madhavan became a full-fledged television star with Ghar Jamai, Sea Hawks, Banegi Apni Baat.

“And today, look at Sophie Turner from The Game Of Thrones. She is bigger than the biggest movie stars,” says Madhavan as he steps into a new phase in his life.

Madhavan is getting ready his bio-pic on Nambi Narayanan who gave his life to space research. Madhavan is not only playing the legendary Nambi Naryanan in Rocketry The Nambi Effect, he’s also directing the bio-pic and that too in multiple languages.

Says Maddy, “I’ve given three years of my life to put together this great man’s story. We’ve traveled to several continents and through several eras to preserve the authenticity of the storytelling. I’ve had the privilege of working with some really big names from international cinema who were only too glad to be part of a story that had to be told.”

Shooting the story through various decades was not easy. “We couldn’t just follow the fashion trends of the specific eras. Scientists are not known to be fashion conscious. They live in their own world. We had to make them look credible and at the same time not too representative of the era. It wasn’t easy. But we’ve finally completed the shooting. And we ‘ll soon be into post-production.”

Maddy, as he is known across the Tamil film industry and Bollywood, feels the time to tell Nambi Narayanan’s story is now. “There is a hunger in the audience to know about the true heroes of our country. Nambi Narayanan was a much-misunderstood genius who dedicated his life to the country. I am proud to have got the chance to tell his story.”