Roshan Mathew on how he got the Poacher role and his journey

Actor Roshan Mathew is going to be seen in the upcoming series ‘Poacher’ soon. Roshan has worked in many Malayalam and Tamil films. He made his debut in Hindi four years ago in ‘Choked’.

Roshan is playing very interesting character in ‘Poacher’ and confessed that it was the easiest decision for him to do this show. “It ticked all the boxes, except that it wasn’t that straightforward for me, because this was a project that was offered for me to pick and say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to it. This was a project for which I was approached to audition for. I was instantly excited as director Richie Mehta was doing it. I knew him as a maker and I was supremely inspired by his work. I really wanted to work with him. The audition happened, and luckily, I got the part, then I got the script. It was such a powerful script. Moreover it is all based on true events, it does not follow a set structure or formula that you are familiar with. These guys have actually nothing to go within their investigation, no system, no guns to pull out, it is all jugaad, so it seemed like a fun script,” he said.

Roshan’s character is inspired by a person who was part of this entire operation. Revealing some details of his role, he said, “My character is based on a real life person. The way it is written is interesting, he is a computer programmer, he works in the Wildlife Trust of India, he is deeply interested in snakes, he is making an app on snakes, he is a family man, he leads multiple lives, keeps a lot of secrets, does a lot of dangerous things. He puts his life on the line for nothing in return – none of these things I do in my life, so it was so exciting to attempt to be that person and I chose to do it.”

Incidentally, Roshan has worked not only with Alia Bhatt in ‘Darlings’, executive producer of the show, but also his co-actor Nimisha Sajayan in the past. He said, “Nimisha has been such an extraordinary performer in Malayalam cinema, since the first film that she did there. She has been an actor with whom I wanted to work with for a long time. The project that you mentioned, ‘Oru Thekkan Thallu Case’, is the first time I got to work with her, which also happens to be the set on which I received the script of this show. Eventually I found out Nimisha is also going to be part of. Now Nimisha and I have done three projects in a row.”

Sharing his experience of this show and praising Nimisha, the actor said, “It was the most magical journey I have had with any co-actors. It was the first series where I travelled with the cast, and particular character and crew for a longer period of time. The fact that Nimisha and I had done that before in previous films, so it was great to have that chemistry, especially after this project began. It was nice to bring that on set. She is an incredible co-actor to work with. Alia and I were discussing this earlier that she is unpredictable as an actor, so you cannot go in with the set plan of how you want to play a scene as Nimisha will break that for you, so you have to be present in the moment and react to what is happening and what she surprise she is throwing at you, and she is great to play acting tennis with her. Nimisha, Dibyendu sir, and the rest of the cast and crew I got to work with, I had a great time but that’s very personal.”

Continuing further, Roshan said, “Professionally, they are all people who inspire me, which is one of the reasons why those are memorable moments for me.”

About Alia, he said, “I am happy, honoured and supremely grateful for that, the last time we were together on a stage which was this big, was for a project that gave birth to Eternal Sunshine Productions. It was a song launch, at that point Alia was my co-actor. It was one of the most memorable, biggest projects in my career. I was very fortunate to be part of it. I knew Alia as an artist through her work. I have a great deal of respect for her, the work that she does, and the way she does it, but also as a person, from the little that I know of her. She is driven by passion, emotion. I am glad Alia is part of this project and is shifting the focus on the show and the rest of us.”