Wielding power comes naturally to actor Mohit Raina. First, the trident was his weapon of choice while playing Lord Shiva in the TV series, Devon Ke Dev: Mahadev. Then it was a sword, playing King Ashoka in Chakravartin Ashok Samrat, followed by the pistols used by Raina’s army major in Uri: The Surgical Strike.
In his latest project, OTT series The Freelancer, he is seen blasting away with assault rifles as Avinash Kamath, a small-time cop-turned-ruthless mercenary.
“My journey has always been about weapons. Although once in a while, it’s important to give the audience something different and forgo guns for roses,” says the actor, who has been in the industry for nearly two decades now. That 'The Freelancer' is directed by Neeraj Pandey, best known for A Wednesday, Special 26, Baby and MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, sealed the deal for Raina. “A dream come true,” is how he describes it. “I said ‘yes’ to the project without even listening to the story,” he recalls.
The show, which released on Hotstar on September 1, also stars Anupam Kher and Sushant Singh. An adaptation of Shirish Thorat’s 2018 book, A Ticket to Syria: A Story about the ISIS in Maldives, it follows Avinash’s mission to rescue a friend’s daughter, abducted by militants.
“I read the book after agreeing to do the series. The script made me realise the magnitude of his (Pandey’s) vision,” says Raina.
The Freelancer was shot in a small town in Morocco, where the Syrian landscape was recreated by an international crew of almost 500 people. “Besides Indians and Moroccans, there were Europeans and Americans on the team,” adds the 41-year-old actor, who had a 13-year-long stint in television before getting a movie break. His patience had clearly paid off, because he arrived with a bang as Major Karan Kashyap in Uri, alongside Vicky Kaushal and Yami Gautam.
Once Raina had become a household name following his portrayal of Shiva for five years, he was flooded with offers for all kinds of roles. His popularity, however, made him feel that he was meant to portray only powerful characters. He turned down other parts. Between 2014 and 2019, he played Shiva again in Mahabharata and a Sikh soldier in 21 Sarfarosh-Saragarhi 1897. He pleads guilt to “immaturity”. “When you start playing characters with a lot of power, you also start enjoying it offscreen,” admits Raina, who is now diversifying his filmography by playing several ‘ordinary’ roles.
Earlier this year, he was seen in Ishq-e-Nadaan. The romantic drama was the latest in the list of his conscious choices to break away from his macho image. In 2021, he starred in yet another romantic drama, Shiddat, where he played an Indian diplomat, who facilitates the travel of a poor, love-sick man across international borders. The most noteworthy ones, however, have been the two web series, Kaafir (2019) and Mumbai Diaries 26/11 (2021), where he plays a journalist and doctor, respectively.
“Eventually, I realised that the craft of acting was not about the power of the character, but its changing dimensions,” says Raina, as he gears up for the second season of Mumbai Diaries.