Actor R Madhavan, known in Bollywood, went through a difficult period in his life before starting his film career. Before pursuing acting, he had the opportunity to go to Canada as an exchange student.
There, he encountered a completely new culture. As a committed vegetarian, he had to live with families whose livelihood depended on cattle slaughtering. In 2023, during a conversation on the Indian School of Business YouTube channel, Madhavan recalled his days in Canada.
He arrived in a place called Steller as part of the exchange program, which he described as the 'Wild West' and 'Cowboy country.' According to Madhavan, he lived among cowboy families, and the biggest cultural shock for him was that the people he lived with were involved in cattle slaughtering. He considered this period extremely important for shaping his personality, noting that at the time it all seemed 'unjust' (adharma) to him.
In Canada, Madhavan became part of the school basketball team. For an Indian boy who was not as tall as the others, making the team was a significant achievement. The team then traveled to a neighboring town for a seven-day tournament. After the matches, the players took showers, and Madhavan's method of washing proved to be a real shock for him.
The boys' locker room had a shower system with about six showerheads around one pole, and all the boys showered together. While this was normal for the other boys, for Madhavan, who came from a South Indian family, this situation caused great discomfort. In his family, it is not even customary to go without clothes at home, so bathing in front of so many boys presented a huge challenge.
Ultimately, Madhavan decided: 'What will be, will be.' He decided to take a shower wearing only his underwear. The other boys were surprised, wondering, 'What is he hiding?' The situation became even more unusual when he appeared in the shower in his underwear while all the other boys were showering naked, and all eyes turned to him. Madhavan felt very 'exposed,' perhaps more than anyone else, because the other boys were completely relaxed with each other, and his appearance raised questions among them.
This episode lasted not just one or two days, but all seven days. On the third day, Madhavan realized: 'This is not me.' Initially, he tried to convince himself that he should adapt to local customs. However, on the third day, he understood that it did not align with his personality. He decided that regardless of how the rest of the world perceived it, he would do what made him comfortable. This experience later became an important life lesson for him.
In Madhavan's opinion, this experience taught him that one should not do anything just because others consider it the norm if you feel uncomfortable with it yourself. For him, it was much more important to stand his ground, maintaining his individuality and sense of comfort. He also noted that this confidence and ability to stick to his decision later proved extremely useful to him in the film industry. Although the story might seem funny today, for Madhavan at the time, it was nothing less than a 'trial.' On one hand, a completely different Canadian culture, on the other—living among a family involved in cattle slaughtering, and on top of that—the struggle to avoid communal showering for seven days. Before starting filming, R Madhavan's life showed him a 'real scene' that might be hard to imagine even in a script.