I'm in a position to pick and choose roles after 'Darlings': ‘Poacher’ actor Roshan Mathew

Actor Roshan Mathew, who currently features in the critically acclaimed show ‘Poacher’, credits the Alia Bhatt starrer ‘Darlings’ in 2022 for helping him land better projects.

Mathew played a prominent role in the Netflix thriller that revolved around a mother and daughter. The mother's role was played by Shefali Shah of 'Delhi Crime' fame. It was Bhatt's maiden production.

"The best thing that an actor can ask for is that you are considered for projects and that projects are offered to you. You're in a position to pick and choose. I'll never have enough of that and will always be greedy. So, I'm very thankful for how ‘Darlings’ has contributed to that. I did 'Poacher' right after that," Mathew said.

True events

The 31-year-old actor plays the role of a wildlife warrior in the Richie Mehta-directed Prime Video series, which started streaming from February 23.

The series marks Mehta's return to an OTT platform after the first season of ‘Delhi Crime’ in 2019. 'Poacher', also backed by Bhatt as an executive producer, is inspired by true events that unravel the illegal ivory trade in India through the lens of forest officials and wildlife warriors.

Mathew, who was an established name in Malayalam cinema with critically acclaimed turns in films such as Moothon and C U Soon, made his Hindi movie debut with Anurag Kashyap's Choked in 2020.

The actor said since the story is rooted in his home state of Kerala, he and other actors and Mehta held long discussions on the use of certain dialogues. "We had intense sessions where we were debating. Richie (Mehta) would ask, ‘Why are Malayalam words so long? The English lines are this much and in Malayalam, it is like three more pages’,” Mathew recalled.

“Richie would say, ‘I've written in English, and here is the Google translation’ and we'd be like, 'No, sorry, we can't use it'. Richie would say, ‘Why?’ And we would tell him that people don't use that word anymore. It was used by the kings long ago," he added.

'Poacher' also features actor Nimisha Sajayan, best known to audiences outside Malayalam cinema for her role in 'The Great Indian Kitchen'.

Content-driven

Actor Debyendu Bhattacharya of ‘Maharani’ fame plays a forest official in the eight-part thriller, 'Poacher'.

Bhattacharya, who has been in the industry for more than two decades and has worked in films such as Black Friday, Dev D, Undekhi and Rocket Boys, is happy that stories have moved beyond the typical arc of hero and heroine and are more content-driven now.

“Earlier we lived in between phases of Indian cinema. There was no content but some structures. Heroes, heroines, villain, song, dance and fight sequences. Revenge story, love story and end,” he said. “I always want to do more pertinent work. Now, the time is very good as we have a content-driven industry, and content is considered king. I want to keep working on relevant stories like ‘Poacher’," Bhattacharya added.

(With agency inputs)