NEW DELHI: Malayalam cinema star Roshan Mathew says he had to let go of his obsession with preparing extensively for scenes while working on Anurag Kashyap's "Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai".
Roshan plays the role of an unemployed and lackadaisical husband to Saiyami Kher's character of a bank employee in the Netflix satire.
Kashyap told PTI that he cast Roshan right after being impressed by his performance in Geetu Mohandas' "Moothon" as he could sense "honesty" in the actor's eyes.
Kashyap had co-written the film with Mohandas.
For Roshan, the director's faith in him was exciting as well as nerve-wracking initially.
"Anurag Kashyap offered me the film after 'Moothon', which is the most satisfied I have felt after a movie. I feel that's the best work of mine that has come up. And if someone like Anurag Kashyap cast me right after that then it means that this is the minimum he is expecting. I did not want to disappoint," Roshan told PTI.
The 28-year-old actor, who hails from Changanassery, Kottayam in Kerala, made his movie debut with 2016 movie "Puthiya Niyamam", is known for his roles in Malayalam films such as "Koode" and "Thottappan".
Kashyap's film marks his Hindi debut.
Roshan said he could identify with his character of Sushant Pillai and his anxieties to some extent.
"I had a lot of similarities and dissimilarities with Sushant. He is a migrant artiste in Mumbai trying to make a living, so am I. Sushant is a failure and he has accepted it and I am fighting really hard not to be that. Sushant has fully given into his insecurities and that's what I am fighting so that way there was a lot I knew and a lot that I did not. So it was exciting and challenging," he said.
Another challenge for the actor, at least initially, was to learn to adapt to Kashyap's style of shooting, which is based on improvisations on the sets.
"I have this obsession with preparing extensively but I had to learn to let go. Go for a free fall hoping that AK (Kashyap) will catch me. I learnt to live in the moment and do what Sushant will do. It was tough but freeing. I enjoyed that freedom," he said.
Some of the best scenes in the movie involve Sushant and Sarita's fight, including one where their kid is sleeping and is woken up to tell which one of his parents is right.
"It is among our favourite scenes. It is one of the few scenes that AK rehearsed with us and our assistant director Sushant Monga pretend to be the kid. That was a fun day at the shoot. A lot of it evolved out of Sushant's reactions. AK seemed happy with the scene so it calmed my nerves," he recalled.
"Choked" premiered on Netflix on June 5.
It also features Amruta Subhash and Rajshri Deshpande.