Madhavan gained recognition in Tamil cinema through Mani Ratnam's successful romance film "Alaipayuthey" (2000). He soon developed an image as a romantic hero with notable roles in two of the highest-grossing Tamil films of 2001, Gautham Menon's directorial debut "Minnale" and Madras Talkies' "Dumm Dumm Dumm". He achieved further critical and commercial success in the films "Kannathil Muthamittal" (2002), "Run" (2002), "Anbe Sivam" (2003) and "Aayutha Ezhuthu" (2004). In the mid-2000s, Madhavan also actively pursued a career in Hindi films, by appearing in supporting roles in three highly successful productions, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's "Rang De Basanti" (2006), Mani Ratnam's biopic "Guru" (2007) and Rajkumar Hirani's "3 Idiots" (2009), which went on to become the highest-grossing Indian film of all time upon release at the time. During this time, Madhavan also simultaneously continued working in Tamil cinema with the films "Evano Oruvan" (2007) and "Yavarum Nalam" (2009).