Actor Rohman Shawl, who was recently seen in Sai Pallavi and Shivakarthikeyan-starrer Amaran, shared his experience of playing an antagonist for the first time on screen. He has impressed the audience with his performance as Asif Wani, a terrorist.
On receiving immense love from the audience, Rohman said, “I didn’t think the film and my role would be so well received. I was skeptical about playing the antagonist but the kind of love people are showing is great. I’m brutal in the film and people are hating my character, but that’s something one only hopes for. People’s appreciation is what we all seek.”
Opening up about why he was skeptical to play a negative role, Rohman shared, “I waited for this film for two years and did not take any other projects. I said no to big production houses, and to so much money. I thought what if it doesn’t do any good? What if I go unnoticed? There were nights I couldn’t sleep because of that. But, thankfully, my gamble paid off. It has been so well received. People are recognising me and I’m getting more work. I could just say that I’ve manifested it.”
Rohman shared that director Rajkumar Periasamy told him he’s too sweet to play a villain. “He was like, ‘Rohman, I see that in your eyes. But you’re too sweet. You’re too proper. So start growing your hair. Let’s get into the physicality of it’. I usually walk sophistically and he wanted me to get ruthlessness into it. He kept guiding me throughout and that was so helpful.”
Besides working on the physicality, Rohman said his character pushed him out of his comfort zone. “There is a scene where I’m attacking the military base, a convo actually, and a guy gets killed. While this was happening, there’s an actual stunt guy who’s set on fire. I was looking at him, the scene was on… The director said cut, and I was still looking at him. Because I was so much into that character, I was enjoying it. He was dying in front of me and I started enjoying it. Later, one of my cousins, who was with me, called me and that’s when I realised, this is too much. This is acting, you cannot get into that side of it. So that’s how it impacts you. You’ve always heard actors saying all these things in interviews and you’re like, ‘How hard could it be?’ But when it happens to you, you do realise. Sometimes it takes weeks and months for actors to come out of their characters. Thankfully, it didn’t take me a lot of time,” he said.
Rohman made his debut with the short film Azadi, which was filmed in 2021, however, it was never released.
Recalling the difficult phase, Rohman mentioned, “I was a fashion model but they say, if something is written in your fate, no one can keep you away from it. Actually, you can’t keep yourself away from it. So in 2021, I acted in a short film. It wasn’t an easy ride because the project has still not been released. I think there were some issues with the production, because I never spoke to them. Then with each delay, I stopped asking about it. It did affect me for a couple of months. But then I got my second film and with time, you realise that you will have to accept that there will be delays, there will be fallbacks. And then you will reap the benefits, and with Amaran, I finally have. So the hold ups have been strong, but I’ve been lucky that I’ve got good films.”
Rohman has faced intense scrutiny due to his relationship rumours with actress Sushmita Sen. Amid this, the actor revealed how he stays focused on his work and not get distracted by trolls.
“I know all this has nothing to do with me. People have their own issues or frustrations in their lives and they vent on social media. I vent out things through music and some people do it by pulling someone else down. What they write about me or talk about me shows where they are in their lives, not me. I’m blessed. I’m secure. I know what I mean and what I do. So that security comes from there. I also have some lovely people around me who keep me grounded, my family especially. So no hard feelings to anybody,” he said.
