‘Stardom is dangerous’: Madhavan admits India has better swimmers than son Vedaant

Vedaant, who is currently training in Ahmedabad with the Indian contingent for the Asian Games, may not have achieved success early in his career had his parents not relocated to Dubai to support his dreams. “For a child to become an international athlete, there is a ‘growth spurt’ period. During adolescence, between ages 10 and 17, suddenly you see a child grow 3 inches in a month! That’s called a growth spurt. If they don’t train hard during that window, their body will never be ready for the international level,” reasoned Madhavan on Behindwoods TV.

Unfortunately, Vedaant’s growth spurt began in 2020 when he was 14 years old, but since it was the pandemic, all public swimming pools in India were indefinitely closed. “So, we tried training in home pools and at friends’ pools in Goa, but it didn’t work,” recalled the actor. One day, his wife Sarita said, “Whether you come or not, I need a swimming pool.” Since the Indian national team was training in Dubai, she impulsively decided to relocate there, where Vedaant trained for the next two years.

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While it was Sarita’s decision to relocate to Dubai, Madhavan says he has also supported their son’s wish to become a professional swimmer. “There’s an important thing I want to tell parents. In this day and age, I don’t know how important studies alone are, but parents should observe if a child has ‘grit’ at a young age and help them. Parents can identify that,” said the actor.

“I put Vedaant into many sports, but with swimming, the key rule everywhere in the world is: no matter what happens, you must be in the pool at 5:30 am. Whatever the weather, the global rule is you must be in the pool from 5:00 to 7:00 am to swim, and 5:00 to 7:00 pm in the evening, with physical training in between. I never needed to wake him up for swimming; he would be ready in my room at 4:30 am. So that discipline was set,” added Madhavan.

Despite moving to Dubai for his son, Madhavan continues to act in Indian films. He will be next seen in Krishnakumar Ramakumar’s Tamil period drama GDN, the biopic of legendary inventory and engineer Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu, also known as the “Edison of India.” The film is slated to release in cinemas on August 7.