Earlier this week, actor Roshan Mathew saw the release of his Malayalam action comedy Chatha Pacha: The Ring of Rowdies. Now, he is gearing up for what comes next. Among the projects in his line-up, the actor tells mid-day that the one he is most hopeful about beginning soon is the second season of Kankhajura. The inaugural season of the SonyLIV thriller premièred in May last year.
“We are all set for a second season with a story in place. We are super excited to go back because it’s such a lovely collection of actors — [Mohit Raina, Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, and Sarah Jane-Dias]. I have also loved working with the crew,” he shares of the series directed by Chandan Arora.
Mathew’s 11-year career is peppered with work across languages. He believes that moving between industries is essential to challenge stereotypes. “It’s a constant choice that you have to keep making,” he notes. Working across industries also exposes him to varied work cultures. If Malayalam film sets are intimate and largely non-hierarchical, Bollywood sets are often marked by large entourages and scale. Having experienced both, he feels comparisons are unfair.
(L-R) Mohit Raina and Roshan Mathew in ‘Kankhajura’
“I’ve noticed that the sizes of entourages are bigger in Bollywood. But it’s also unfair to blindly compare the two because the kind of crowd that would gather when a Bollywood star is shooting in an exterior location in Mumbai cannot be compared to a star shooting in a location in Kochi. Crowd management itself requires more resources in [big cities]. Firstly, Kochi is not as crowded. Secondly, people here understand that they need to keep a distance with artistes when they’re working,” he says.
While Malayalam cinema has traditionally been “grounded in a way that we can do the best with the resources at our disposal”, Mathew observes a clear budgetary shift. “There’s a gradual shift because the audience is demanding it, as it’s exposed to all kinds of cinema and the industry knows that it cannot retain the audience’s interest by only serving something frugal.”
Case in point is director Geetu Mohandas — with whom he collaborated on Moothon (2019) — who is now helming the big-budget period actioner Toxic, starring Yash. When asked about its recent teaser getting mixed reactions with some criticising the director for objectifying women, Mathew says, “I have seen the teaser; it doesn’t reveal anything about the film’s story or the world. So, I can’t judge it. But I am not suprised by the audience’s reaction because Geethu is too brave to repeat herself.”
Roshan Mathew’s Bollywood films
