Breaking Bad: Actor Roshan Mathew on his latest films

Roshan Mathew, who rose to fame with Darlings, is keen on shedding his brooding guy image and establishing himself as a versatile actor
Actor Roshan Mathew
Actor Roshan Mathew

Amid the cacophony of disappointment that engulfed Bollywood last year, one film that made all the right noises was the OTT release, Darlings. There were a lot of reasons. It was Alia Bhatt’s streaming debut and also her first production project. It had a powerful cast of Vijay Varma and Shefali Shah. And Roshan Mathew. 

The 30-year-old played the bearded, kurta-clad Zulfi, an ally to the domestically abused Badru, to the hilt, receiving praise from critics and audience alike. “You learn something new from every new project you work on. Working with Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma, Jasmeet K Reen was an enriching experience, and the film worked out because all of them were patient with me,” he says.

Format with Poacher, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film festival. Based on illegal ivory trading, and helmed by Richie Mehta of the Delhi Crime fame, it will see him play a computer programmer with the Wildlife Trust of India. “I wanted to work with Richie after being bowled over by his work. 

I loved the writing, and the whole prep was interesting. So, I’m hoping it comes out well,” he says.

For Roshan, who debuted in 2016 with Malayalam crime drama Puthiya Niyamam, his trust in characters is crucial in shaping his performance. That’s how, he says, he is able to play roles that undergo a remarkable transformation. The actor cites the 2020 film, Kappela, in which he plays a trafficker in the garb of a charming autorickshaw driver, whose identity isn’t revealed till the very end. “With such roles, the challenge is to play it in a way that there is always a layer over the character’s true self, despite knowing when the personality shift is supposed to occur,” he says, adding, “When it’s time for the mask to come off, it should seem like this guy has always been like this. I try to achieve that with all my characters. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

There’s also Podiyan from the 2022 action-comedy Oru Thekkan Thallu Case, who gets into 
a scuffle with a powerful person, but the character exudes much more confidence than he really has. The fact that his external persona does not expose his inner conflicts was something that made Roshan take up the role. “There is a perception that I’m only into performance-driven, serious stuff, but 
I want people to see the other side of me,” says the actor, who appears to be steadily, but smartly expanding his filmography with roles that establish him as versatile.

Roshan has explored his more relaxed, uninhibited side in recent films such as Chathuram, Night Drive and Gold. Even in Darlings, which dealt with the issue of domestic violence, he does bring an adorable, goofball-like quality to Zulfi, making him the perfect foil to the testosterone-loaded gaslighter played by Varma. “I don’t know when that perception was created about me, but I intend to correct that,” 
he adds.

Even as his career in the Hindi film industry gains momentum—Darlings was his second Bollywood outing after Anurag Kashyap’s Choked (2020)—Roshan is careful to have all requisites in his kitty, the most important one being his Hindi-speaking skills. Over the last year, he has consciously worked on his accent to belong better. “With Choked, the character being a South Indian made it easier, but Darlings was set in a Mumbai chawl. So, I tried to get rid of any accent problems I might have had with the help of a coach. As the film got delayed by a few months due to the pandemic, I got a lot of time to practise,” he says.

Roshan will next be seen alongside National Award-winners Fahadh Faasil and Aparna Balamurali in Kannada filmmaker Pawan Kumar’s much-anticipated Dhoomam. Without divulging much about the project, the actor assures that it will be something “unique”. “It is a story that takes place in different timelines, and it is unlike anything we have seen before,” he says.

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