R Madhavan Recalls Living With Cow-Slaughtering Families, Reveals Why He Called It ‘Adharma’
Madhavan recalls an experience that challenged his beliefs.
Long before R Madhavan established himself as an actor in Tamil and Hindi cinema, an international exchange programme took him to Canada, where he experienced a way of life vastly different from what he had known in India. Madhavan travelled to Stettler in Alberta as an exchange student through Rotary, an experience he later described as an important part of his formative years. During his stay, he lived with families whose livelihoods were connected to cattle slaughter, something that was particularly difficult for him because he has long described himself as a strict vegetarian. The actor recalled the experience while discussing his early life and the influence of different cultures on his outlook.
In a conversation shared by the Indian School of Business on its YouTube channel in 2023, Madhavan spoke about his time in Canada and the circumstances in which he found himself living in Stettler. He described the place as “the wild, wild west” and “cowboy country”, reflecting the rural surroundings and the lifestyle he encountered there. His exchange programme exposed him to a community and culture that were unfamiliar to him, giving him an opportunity to experience everyday life away from India. Rather than staying in a conventional student setting, Madhavan lived with local families, allowing him to observe their lives closely and understand a different social environment.
Madhavan recalled that he was surrounded by people whose lives were closely associated with cattle and ranching. He said he lived with cowboys and stayed with families who slaughtered cows for a living. For the actor, who identifies as a “hardcore vegetarian”, the situation presented a strong personal and cultural contrast. He described the practice as “adharma” from his perspective, using the Sanskrit term to express his discomfort with something that conflicted with his personal beliefs. His recollection was not simply about the difference in food habits but about encountering a lifestyle that challenged the values and assumptions he had grown up with.
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The experience also demonstrated how dramatically different an exchange programme could be from a familiar environment. Madhavan travelled to Canada at a young age through Rotary and found himself in a place he characterised as the “wild, wild west”. Living with families whose occupations and customs differed substantially from his own required him to adapt to an unfamiliar setting. At the same time, the experience gave him an opportunity to encounter people outside his immediate cultural surroundings. His comments suggest that the period became part of the broader process through which he developed an understanding of different communities and ways of life.
Madhavan eventually built a career spanning multiple Indian film industries, becoming known for his work in both Tamil and Hindi cinema. Over the years, he has taken on a wide range of roles and worked across films and other formats. However, his years before entering the entertainment industry included experiences that were far removed from the world of cinema. His time in Canada as an exchange student was one such chapter, exposing him to a rural community in Alberta and placing him in circumstances that tested his ability to adjust to unfamiliar surroundings. The memory has remained part of the stories he has shared about his formative years.
Recalling the episode years later, Madhavan presented it as one of the many experiences that shaped his understanding of the world before he entered films. His stay in Stettler brought him into close contact with a community whose lifestyle was fundamentally different from his own, while his vegetarianism made some aspects of that experience particularly striking. His description of the families he stayed with and his reference to the situation as “adharma” captured the cultural and personal contrast he encountered. The Canadian exchange, therefore, became more than an overseas educational experience for Madhavan, serving as an early encounter with a world that challenged his familiar assumptions and broadened his exposure to different ways of living.
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