This year, Radhikka Madan and her elder brother, Arjun Madan, had three Raksha Bandhan celebrations. The first one took place earlier this month, when Arjun, a businessman in Canada, was visiting India. The second one was for our special Rakhi shoot at their Gurugram home. And on Raksha Bandhan today, they would be celebrating their bond for the third time. “I grew up with five brothers, four being our cousins. I used to play cricket with them. Everyone practised chokeslams on me,” Radhikka laughs, as she goes on to talk about her brother.
Naughty sister
Arjun, 33, says, “My mum once said, ‘You can’t raise a hand on your sister’.” And the actor took that as a reason to tease him. “I used to hit him a lot, he couldn’t do a thing,” Radhikka recalls, adding, “He was always very good at studies and excelled in everything, be it sports or academics. I was the oddball.”
Arjun reflects on his sister’s academic journey, revealing that Radhikka, 29, often sought his guidance. “I was and still am her go-to person. We both went to Delhi Public School in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh). She says she wasn’t good in studies, but she was.”
Arjun adds that Radhikka would keep an eye on him and report back to their mother: “She used to come home and say, ‘Arjun was bunking classes today with this girl’.” Radhikka interjects, “I was trying to be destructive as I was chhoti. I was fascinated with senior school and would go to see his class. He was dating his then-girlfriend and now-wife. I would tell mum, ‘Yeh bhelpuri khaata hai kisi ke saath.’ But she would say, ‘Yeh pagal ho gayi hai.’ I would insist, ‘Koi lambi si ladki hai, he plays basketball with her.’ I would constantly poke him.”
Critic and cheerleader
Talking about his sister’s journey in showbiz as an outsider, Arjun shares: “The easy thing for me is I boycotted social media a long time back. Being a coder before and now running my own business, I never take social media comments seriously. As far as she is concerned, I haven’t seen one project of hers I felt bad about.”
Radhikka adds, “He’s my bouncing board. I discuss every film offered to me with him. He’s my harshest critic and biggest cheerleader.”
