'They See Me As A Villa'

‘I want to break the notion that models can’t act.’

Rohman Shawl is probably best known for being Sushmita Sen’s off-and-on boyfriend.

But there’s more to him.

The actor made his movie debut in Amaran, playing against type as a terrorist with terrifying menace. The Tamil film, starring Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi, became a blockbuster and Rohman’s chilling act was praised as well. “My personal life has been talked about for so many years, and it’s okay. That is also a part of me. But after the films, people have only talked about my work,”

The terrorist you play in Amaran is so different from your sweet, affable personality.

When you get something that is totally opposite of your real self, that really challenges you as an actor. When (Director) Rajkumar Periasamy approached me and said it was an antagonist, I was like, ‘Wow, how do you even see that in me?’ I generally don’t get that from people. I only get these cute little roles, you know, the nice guy, the lovable guy. I did Amaran only because of the conviction that person had in me.

When you play such an intensely negative character, does it mess your mind?

To a point, yes.

Thankfully, because I lead my life assertively, I’m very connected with myself. The moment it starts happening, you recognise that and disconnect. I’ll give you one example: You remember the scene when I put fire on these vote banks? So, there was a part where this guy gets burnt. He was a stuntman, and he was getting burnt. He said cut. They came and started putting out the fire. I was standing there as Asif Wani and enjoying it, even after the director called a cut. Someone came and said, ‘Rohmanbhai’, and that’s when I snapped out. I realised that this is getting out of hand and I started slowly disconnecting from it. See, when you’re in that zone, in that real environment, you get into it. Thankfully, because I know myself, I switched off and then made sure I didn’t get too deep into it.