R Madhavan says he is jealous of son Vedaant: ‘Every time people come up to me with a smile…’

R Madhavan's son Vedaant Madhavan, an Indian swimmer, won a gold in the men’s 800m freestyle at the Danish Open in Copenhagen in April this year.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: June 7, 2022 04:25 PM IST

3 min read

Actor R. Madhavan's son Vedaant is a competitive swimmer. (Photo: R. Madhavan/ Instagram)

Actor R Madhavan received heaps of praise for his upcoming film Rocketry at the recently held 75th edition of Cannes Film Festival. However, he revealed that often people walk up to him to congratulate him for his son Vedaant Madhavan’s achievement. Vedaant won a gold in swimming at the Danish Open 2022 in Copenhagen.

In an interview with Brut, Madhavan said he feels “really jealous” because now people come to him to talk about his son and not his films. “I am really jealous right now because every time I meet people on the road in Mumbai, I think that they are coming up to me with a smile because I think they are congratulating me for Rocketry but then they say, ‘He not really got the silver, but gold.’ My assistants have a good laugh at my expense. I am trying to win this competition by shutting him off and keeping him off the press while I can,” Madhavan joked.

ALSO READ | R Madhavan’s son Vedaant says ‘didn’t want to live in dad’s shadow,’ speaks about his parents’ sacrifices

Ever since Vedaant grabbed gold, people have been talking about how Madhavan and his wife Sarita brought him up well. However, Madhavan believes that they did nothing different. But he does point out that he was privileged enough to move to Dubai to support Vedaant in his training for Olympics.

“As a parent, we have as many insecurities and done as many things wrong or right as any other parent. It is just that we sometimes have the freedom to take decisions that other normal middle class family might not have. For example, having to shift to Dubai so that his training continues during his growth spurt. That was a privilege that I as a non-middle class could afford. But as parent, the insecurities are as much as any other parent in whichever strata of society they belong to,” he said. As a parenting tip, Madhavan said the thing that they got right is to keep Vedaant focused and busy during his teens.

ALSO READ | R Madhavan, wife Sarita celebrate 23rd marriage anniversary, share rare pics from wedding: ‘More in love with you now…’

“The only thing that Sarita and I have got right so far is that we make sure that the boy was engaged completely during his teenage times and didn’t have too much time to himself. And doing things that he liked, things that we could control. So, he has not gotten into too much trouble. I am not saying he won’t. I did, everybody will get into trouble. I just hope he has the wisdom to come to us and hopefully solve it before it becomes too big,” he concluded.

While Madhavan is a proud father, Vedaant is also appreciative of his parents’ efforts for him. Earlier this year, speaking to DD India, Vedaant spoke about how he wanted to create an identity of his own. He praised Madhavan’s Rocketry, said it is “extraordinary” and “touching” film.

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