R Madhavan on why he gave son Vedaant no free time until he was 15: ‘Indulge him in whatever they want’

ACtor R Madhavan has often spoken nigh rearing his boy Vedaant Madhavan with warm values despite growing up in a privileged environs. Vedaant, who is an international swimmer representing India at multiple championships, is Madhavan’s son with wife Sarita Birje, whom he married in 1999.In a recent conversation on the 100 Year Life Project by ACKO with Radhika Gupta, Madhavan opened up about modern parenting, social pressure and the parenting rule that shaped the way he raised his son.Also read: R Madhavan goes incognito to watch Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar 2 in Mumbai, picture emerges onlineMadhavan reflects on teaching Vedaant gratitude and respectMadhavan said one of the biggest lessons he wanted Vedaant to understand was gratitude and awareness of privilege. “The thing I made sure that Vedaant did was to acknowledge, maybe not as much as my friends, but most certainly acknowledge the liftman, the guard, the drivers, you know, and not call them aayas and stuff like that. Call them didis instead. And I made sure that if the watchman came and said, ‘You are a very polite child, he always says namaste to me,’ I thought my job was well done.”The parenting advice he learnt in CanadaMadhavan also shared one parenting lesson that stayed with him after living in Canada years ago. He recalled staying in a town where teenage pregnancy, drugs and alcohol issues were common among young people.However, he noticed one particular family whose children were disciplined and grounded despite the environment around them. “I happened to ask the lady of the household many years later, I said, ‘How did you manage to do this?’ And she gave me an advice which I followed to the heart, and it really worked for my son. And she said, ‘Don’t give your child free time. She said, ‘You know, indulge him or her in whatever they want to do, as long as they’re doing it with passion. The interests will change, the level of commitment will change, but make sure that they don’t have free time till they’re 15–16 years old. Make it a habit to make sure they go from one activity to the other. And it could be fun. It should be fun. It shouldn’t be a chore, the child is going to hate it’,” he recalled.Madhavan's recent workOn the work front, R Madhavan was last seen in Dhurandhar: The Revenge alongside Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, Sara Arjun, and Rakesh Bedi. The film, currently running in theatres, released on March 19 after the first film arrived in theatres on December 5, 2025. Part 2 of the espionage saga will arrive on Netflix internationally and on JioHostar in India on May 14.