The film Oru Mexican Aparatha saw Roopesh Peethambaran unleashing his villainous side as a student politician. And then came offers to play the typecast role of an antagonist that he said no. Instead he chose to wait for a role that would challenge the actor in him yet again. He found that role in Ankarajyathe Jimmanmar, where he will be playing Kichu who runs a Movers and Packers Company, which is a complete one-man show. He informs, “I am the driver, loading and unloading person, marketing man and everything in between — even living in the vehicle sometimes. The film is about four people and I am someone who comes from the village to the city with a lot of dreams.”
The teasers of the film have been receiving a favourable response and what thrills Roopesh is the response to his comic character. “I have been incredulously asked if I can do comedy by viewers who saw the teaser! I wanted to play a humorous character and wanted to stay away from being typecast. I also wanted to challenge myself since it is for the very first time that I am attempting a comic character.” When the script of Ankarajyathe Jimmanmar directed by Praveen Narayanan was pitched to him initially, he was not very confident about taking up the character, but once he read the entire script, he felt he could carry of Kichu. The added bonus was that his co-stars were all people whom he knew — Dr Rony David, Anu Mohan, Rajeev Pillai etc. “From a director’s point of view, I could immediately grasp that they were totally apt for their respective roles.”
Roopesh admits that he is selective about his roles and only chooses to act when the role convinces him. “I tend to look at the script from an audience point of view and see if I enjoy it and only then will I take it up” he informs. He also intends to concentrate on only one film at a time so that he can be completely involved with the promotions and other aspects of pre-release events. While the actor in Roopesh is up and about, the director in him seems to be dormant. Roopesh has always stated that direction is his first love; so where are the projects? “Where are the producers?” he counters. “It has come to such a state that without the dates of superstars, I cannot get a producer to finance my film. If I had producers ready to invest money on my movies, I would have stopped acting and made films back to back!” Echoing the sad state of affairs in Mollywood, he says, “That is why I have immense respect for the producers of Ankarajyathe Jimmanmar who had faith in a new director.”
