This story is from January 11, 2020

If Nivin Pauly wasn’t scared to play a gay man, why would I be?: Roshan Mathew

The actor is receiving accolades for enacting Amir, a homosexual, in Moothon
If Nivin Pauly wasn’t scared to play a gay man, why would I be?: Roshan Mathew
The innocent smile of Amir, the deaf-mute guy in Mothoon who falls in love with Akbar, will haunt anyone who has watched the film. Actor Roshan Mathew has hit the purple patch and came into the limelight by making the gentle Amir a memorable character that Mollywood can always cherish.
At his home in Kakkanad, Roshan looks a bit exhausted. He rushes in after winding up some pending work, apologises for being late and keeping us waiting.
“I am caught up with preparing for a couple of movies which are expected to begin next month,” he explains, making himself comfortable on the sofa. The actor who debuted in Malayalam through Adi Kapiyare Kootamani and became popular through Anandam, is also known for his theatre production A Very Normal Family (AVNF). “We are working on our second play now. I am doing a performance-based story. Life is busy,” he goes on as we listen in…
How is life after Moothon?
It was the most satisfying acting and life experience. Firstly, it was a project that brought together many people I craved to work with. On top of that, Amir was easily the best written character I got to play. I have always considered myself lucky to be an actor who got to play characters that are distinct from each other. Amir was very interesting and full of love. All I did was to do justice to what Geetu (Mohandas) had written.
The energy I found on the sets of Moothon is something that I now long for at every set. With a lot of positivity around, all you want to do is give your best.
In our recent interview with Nivin Pauly, he said many had told him to be ready for a backlash after playing a homosexual. How were things at your end?
Honestly, I had no second thoughts. Anything Geetu offered, I would have taken. So, there was no moment when I had thought negatively about Amir. I never thought of reactions from society. If Nivin, who has a lot more to lose than me, wasn't scared, why should I be?

Moothon - Bikhre (Love Song) | Shashank Arora | Nivin Pauly | Geetu Mohandas | MiniStudio


Some from the LGBTQIA+ community raised concerns that Moothon did not reflect the current travails of the community. Some also said it hasn’t served gender justice.
I'm not aware of this sentiment as it hasn't reached me or anyone from the team of Moothon. I do not know if I am qualified to say if the film has done justice as I am not from the community. At the end of the day, I am an outsider who is trying to understand and learn about the community. It is a process; a self-taught process. But in terms of representation, and separating myself from the film, I think it has been closest to a realistic and sensitive effort at portraying characters or telling a story from that community, as far as Malayalam cinema is concerned. Now, how the story ends or how the movie itself ends I think, is the perogative of Geetu, as director-writer.
Geetu has the licence to tell the story that she wants to tell, rather than be caught up with trying to be too politically correct at every step. I think every filmmaker has that right, while they still have a responsibility to be sensitive to the issues they deal with and towards the truth. At the end of the day, we need to recognise that you are handling a form of art which influences a lot of people.
Like in Bollywood, you too have been balancing theatre with films…
I started my tryst with acting through theatre. Films happened when I had, not even in my wildest dreams, imagined doing it. I didn't think films were accessible to someone with no family background in cinema or someone who doesn't have a godfather.
I started doing theatre at a very early age and decided that it would be something I’d do for life. I even thought I would make my living out of theatre. When I went to Mumbai, while learning theatre, I realised that it is probably going to be impossible to make a living out of theatre and started auditioning for web series, ad films, films and what not. Then out of nowhere, offers started coming my way for Malayalam movies. I did films for two years, and then realised that I really miss theatre. I got in touch with a couple of people in Kochi whom I knew used to do theatre. We started small with friends and unexpectedly, organically, it began to grow into a professional theatre production.
We thought Kochi doesn't have a theatre culture, so why don’t we start one, as it has all the ingredients that Mumbai has. We too have artistes who have come in from all parts of the country to the film industry. A lot of people are waiting for good work and a keen audience. The only thing we lack is performance spaces and I guess those too are coming up now at a healthy rate. We will try our best to kickstart the culture. If it doesn't happen now, it will definitely happen 10 or 20 years from now.
AVNF, despite not being a great play as compared to some of the great productions that is happening in the country, ran to seven full house shows. We tried really hard to make the best play as possible with the available resources.
Do you think that the response has something to do with the film background of the AVNF team?
Of course. If it didn't have the names that it did, would people have come to watch the show? Probably not. But the only positive side we saw, and which makes us keep going, is that all through the seven shows, we saw people walk up to all of us and talk about the play rather than ask for a selfie. So, even if people were coming in to watch moderately popular film actors 10 metres away, we somehow managed to entertain for more than 40 minutes and make them say, ‘Hey, we never knew theatre could be this’.

A Very Normal Family - Teaser | Theater Play | Roshan Mathew


The second production we have doesn't have anyone from films. If it doesn't go well, we will know that we got an audience earlier because we were film actors.
Did you feel AVNF was restrained to a certain class? Shouldn’t it be accessible to all?
I don't really know what it is about a play that restricts it to a certain economic class, apart from the ticket price. We tried to make AVNF shows as democratic as possible. We performed our opening show at Nishagandi in Thiruvananthapuram, though the space wasn't conducive to our performance. In Kochi, the venues called for a higher expense and so tickets were priced in a way that allowed us to at least break even. Ten years ago, while I was in Mumbai or Chennai, even I couldn't go for the shows because it was expensive. I felt terrible to know the same was happening here.
The only way to get out of this is by having sponsors, which isn’t easy in Kochi, because investors are looking for returns. This is something everyone in theatre has to go through until we get where Mumbai is right now. There is a certain amount of money running in the theatre circle and venues which are affordable. These are the struggles while starting off in a place with no theatre culture.
We know those who came for our show were mostly our social media followers. It is not ideal to give up on that privilege and say, ‘we will be just like our predecessors who functioned in an ideal way out of love for theatre’, and end up losing hope. I think, better be practical. Maybe eventually, we will be able to make it more democratic.
You made your Bollywood debut through Choked, an Anurag Kashyap directorial. Tell us about that.
Choked is about two people suffocating in a marriage. Anurag Kashyap is a very exciting person to work with. He is big on improvisation. He likes to see what happens in the moment. There are very few boundaries when you work with him. It is always fun to work with a team that you completely trust because you just focus on what you are going to do. You can explore.
What are your next projects?
There are three movies awaiting release. One is Sidharth Siva’s movie with Parvathy, the second one is Kappela with Anna Ben and Sreenath Bhasi, directed by Muhammad Musthafa, and the third is Pennum Cherukkanum helmed by Aashiq Abu based on Unni R’s short story, which is part of an anthology.
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