Poacher actor Roshan Mathew: The strangest things that you see in the series are all real | Exclusive

One immediately agrees when Malayalam actor Roshan Mathew says that he shares a lot of similarities with the real-life counterpart of his character Alan in Richie Mehta’s Amazon Prime Video series Poacher . Much like his character, Roshan is ever curious, breaks down and rebuilds his characters with a vivid understanding of their purpose – all as part of his effort for a more genuine portrayal. And for the audience, it’s what has made so many of his complex characters – from Moothon and Kuruthi to Darlings and Poacher – easy to relate to.

In a candid interview with OTTplay, Roshan talks to us about how he approached his role in Poacher, his meetings with the real person he portrays and the kind of projects he gravitates to – all with the utmost clarity that one has come to expect of him.

Also read: Poacher review: This Nimisha Sajayan's series makes a compelling case for why you should care about elephants 

Is Poacher effectively your first superhero film? Because you play an NGO volunteer who is on a mission for the greater good and would probably get no recognition for it. To top it off, he keeps this part of his life hidden even from his near and dear ones. How did you approach the character?

I never thought of him as a superhero; I have the kind of respect that a superhero would get from every kid for what he does, the life he is living and what he has achieved with no support. But I looked at him as a mystery human being because, to be able to portray any character genuinely you have to be able to understand why he is doing what he is doing. Even now when you say that he is a superhero because he is doing this without expecting anything in return, he’s human at the end of the day. So, what is he doing it for? What is his satisfaction? What is driving him? What are his reasons? – Those were my focus while I started working on the character.

Nimisha Sajayan’s character is this lone crusader for whom the mission is the path of redemption because of what her father had done. But your character of Alan also tries his best to balance his family life. But even when Poacher shows the lives of the people involved in this mission, it is actually about the elephants.

Yes, for sure, it’s their story. But it also chronicles what these people went through. Richie put it across beautifully in words when he said, ‘This is probably the only scenario where who you are fighting for is just as likely to kill you as who you are fighting against’.

Also read: Poacher actor Nimisha Sajayan: When it comes to forgiving people who have done wrong, I am like Mala 

Did you meet the real-life person that your character Alan was based on?

I met him. I had my first interaction with him after Richie passed me his number. Richie had informed the actor in me well enough with the script. It was just really tempting for me to know that the person is out there and this is the first time I have been given the opportunity to play a real-life person on screen. Also, he’s not a popular figure. I wanted to meet him not because of getting the mannerisms or the superficial similarities right. I wanted to understand what his reasons were. He was really good at his job, he came into help with the data crunching and then stayed back, took all these risks and pretty much spearheaded the investigation with other people.

Also read: The Richie Mehta Interview | 'I Feel, Ultimately, Human Beings Are Fairly Simple' 

The mystery around the man was too much for me to resist and so, I went ahead and got in touch. I was fortunate that we connected over our first call itself that lasted for almost 40 minutes. I realised that he was from Kanjirappally; he comes from the same district I hail from, he speaks the same dialect that I do. There were a lot of similarities. He was also, I guess, willing to let me use it as research. We met a couple of times and all of them helped me inform my portrayal of Alan.

He is incredible. He is not Greta Thunberg as in he is not someone trying to model himself as the saviour of the world. He isn’t someone always advocating animal rights, working to balance the ecosystem or fight against extinction. He is none of that. He doesn’t even have a social media presence.

He has nothing to say to people through words, it’s all through his work. And the satisfaction he derives out of his work is all very personal. That for me was interesting. I feel he genuinely likes to be the saviour of the species but he isn’t blind to the socio-political scenario in a state like Kerala, where even last week we had an incident where an elephant got out of the forest and ended up killing a man. So, he is aware of both sides of the stories and knows the legalities and realities of it. There is so much there for any actor to work with and I am fortunate to portray some of it.

In the series, Alan is pretty much the ice to Nimisha’s fire. But there are few scenes where you would see him hassled, and that’s when he is trying too hard to balance his family life. Especially the sequence where he is at the wedding and has to make a break for it to nail down another suspect.

Yes, and when he comes back, there’s also the realisation that he has kept his personal life away from what he does professionally and this might be the one case where he might not be able to do that because he could actually be putting his family in danger. He has revealed his hand and could have easily gotten killed because there were people taking videos, and he doesn’t know what is going to come out of it. So, that was a big moment for him – realising the size of the danger that he is in.

Some of the scenes are hard to believe, but is that how a lot of the incidents had played out in real life?

Obviously, all of the events have been dramatised and fictionalised to an extent to make them effective and to fit them to the structure of the show. But the strangest things that you see in the show are all real. This is something that Richie said. Because you can’t write fiction that way.

Any artiste would come off as being more environmentally conscious after being part of a series like Poacher – which discusses both sides of the story, about the impact of poaching as well as how humans are affected in the whole man-animal conflict. Was that the case for you or were you always attuned to what has been happening?

I had been on that curve – learning about and understanding the whole spectrum of environmental issues that stems from the global climate crisis; this includes the animal extinction crisis. Fortunately, we have good journalism happening on that front and we have access to information about what has been happening around the world. So, my awareness about these issues have definitely been increasing.

What Poacher did was, it definitely made me more conscious and knowledgeable from the point that the series had several conversations where both sides of the story are being discussed; for instance, about habitual poachers – where do they come from, what are their state of mind or what gets them to do it. Like, the character Morris Finn says if he didn’t do it, someone else will. We have that happening in the script and I enjoyed understanding what Richie had written about the other side of the story.

Also, there’s the simple fact that this often becomes a debate between the immediate and something that has been happening over a long period of time like the incident that happened in Wayanad. At the same time, we have to realise that as generations pass, protecting wildlife is just as important as preserving human life to bring back the balance that has been upset. Those are the discussions I am looking forward to after Poacher.

We aren’t saying that whatever the scenario, don’t kill wild animals. We are speaking specifically against poaching as it’s an act where animals are culled for selfish reasons – like ego, money and everything we discuss in the series. Maintaining the ecological balance, trying to find the right resolution for the man vs wild debate of the immediate nature are all different parts of the larger conversation. Our entry into this is this particular case that the Kerala Forest Department investigated and brought down the biggest ivory trade ring in the country back then. But that’s not only what the conversation is restricted to, and that was what was the most exciting for me.

At this stage of your career where you have more options in terms of projects, do you tend to gravitate towards projects that have something more meaningful to say like raising awareness and leaving a lasting impression?

I think it’s a bit of that. But partly, in our film industry, everybody is offered more of what they are already doing. I am not speaking about stereotyping as far as casting is concerned. I am one of those actors who have been extremely fortunate that within a few years in the industry, have gotten to play a wide spectrum of characters. So, I am nobody to complain about stereotyping. But there’s this notion that ‘he’s a serious actor and so he would probably only do serious films’. We tend to not be pitched the frivolous slice-of-life comedy, which is also something I enjoy doing because I enjoy watching these movies.

Out of the ones that are offered to me, I pick the best ones for various reasons. Among the best that I have been pitched, I have gravitated towards this territory where there is a possibility of a conversation to be had. While that is the case, I am also someone who enjoys any piece of art that is entertaining as well. We need that too. You can’t keep reading really intense books all the time; you need to take a break from that and read lighter subjects. I enjoy both.

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