In a landscape where versatility is both a privilege and a challenge, Roshan Mathewhas quietly carved out a space for himself as one of Indian cinema’s most exciting, language-fluid performers. From Moothon to Darlings, from Kuruthi to Choked, Roshan has displayed a striking ability to slip into roles with nuance and authenticity.Now, the actor is readying for his next outing inChandan Arora’s Kankhajura, where he plays a character who stammers — a role that demanded not just technical precision, but deep emotional sensitivity.Speaking about his preparation in an exclusive interview with ETimes, Roshan reflected on the weight such a character can bring. “I think it’s one of those things that as actors, we all get super conscious about. So all our senses are suddenly very, very sharp,” he admits. The pressure of ensuring the portrayal wasn’t insensitive or reduced to a trope was something that weighed heavily on him. “This idea of it not being an insensitive or an offensive portrayal in any sense — it sort of weighs you down a lot.”Interestingly, Roshan reveals that the initial drafts of the script had prescribed moments where his character’s stammer would emerge. But he instinctively felt that this approach might not capture the organic nature of such a lived experience. “I told Chandan sir that probably is not going to work. Please be patient with me, please give me some time, give me a few days, and I will figure my way around it.”
And so, he took his time — days spent quietly observing, intuitively feeling his way through the character’s speech patterns. “Eventually over, I think three or four days, I started finding that in the flow of it, there are words on which it seemed to come to me a little more organically than when I planned it,” he says. “I like that. I just had to then trust the instinct and go for it fully in those situations.”Helping him along the way were two crew members on Kankhajura who themselves had struggled with stammering earlier in life. Their presence offered Roshan both insight and reassurance. “I was constantly in conversation with them and also very keenly, secretly observing them,” he shares. “And they were very, very helpful and sensitive through the whole process.”It’s this thoughtful, instinct-driven approach that’s come to define Roshan’s work, whether he’s acting in Malayalam, Hindi, or Tamil films. When asked about whether working across languages has expanded his emotional vocabulary as an actor, Roshan considers the question with characteristic honesty. “I definitely feel like some kind of expansion is happening. That is what I enjoy about jumping between different industries in the first place,” he admits.But for him, it isn’t solely about languages or craft — it’s about human connection. “I don’t know if it’s the emotional vocabulary expanding or if it’s just that as people, we’re all constantly seeking connection. Like why does almost everybody love traveling? Why does everyone like to go off to a place and live there for a brief couple of days?” he muses. “That initial feeling of being uprooted from your home to finding a sort of comfortable home in a different place that is completely unknown to you is very gratifying.”It’s an experience Roshan believes causes a kind of personal evolution. “As an actor specifically, I’m not exactly sure how to point out what it is,” he says with a laugh, “but there’s something happening, which I am absolutely enjoying. Which is why I’m constantly, very keenly on the lookout for, okay — what’s the next thing that I can do, that I can jump to, escape, go live a different life, and come back.”