The Freelancer: Acting to me is very cathartic, says John Kokken | EXCLUSIVE

John Kokken is someone who can be rightly described as ‘the most unassuming hero’. After having done extremely competitive and challenging roles in many south Indian languages, the man is now all set to impress everyone with his strong performance in ‘The Freelancer’, which gets released today.

Also Read: The Freelancer review: Mohit Raina and Anupam Kher's deadly extraction mission is gripping and edgy 

OTTplay caught up with the extremely talented John Kokken who plays an important role in ‘The Freelancer’

Is it true that you are a shy person before while you were doing your hotel management, and that acting helped you overcome your shyness?

In fact, while doing Hotel Management, I had always been a reserved and introvert, and I'm still one. But, acting to me is very cathartic. I get to play different characters and live different characters. Acting to me is very therapeutic. I enjoy acting and it helps me explore myself as a person. It's a different experience. But coming back to your question, I was and I still am a shy person. But when I when I get into a role, it's a different thing. I become a different person!

How did ‘The Freelancer’ happen?
I will give the credit for getting the role to an actress called Rukhsaar Dhillon. I happened to meet her a couple of years back and she connected me to this casting director called Shubham Gaur, who was casting for the web series. And that's how he kind of approached me when the casting was going on. I am really grateful to Rukhsaar Dhillon for having such a big heart to pitch my name to Shubham Gaur.

Can you touch upon your character in ‘The Freelancer’?
It’s very much unlike the roles that I've done in the past, where I'm getting killed, there are guns, action, blood… this is a completely different character. This is a very soft spoken, but yet a firm intelligence officer. I play the role of Raghavendra, somebody who looks tough and you cannot mess with him. He knows to smooth talk his way if he has to get work done from somebody, which you will see in this series.

The series is based on Shirish Thorat’s novel ‘A Ticket To Syria’. Have you read the novel?

No, I haven't read the novel.

Also Read: The Freelancer: I don’t believe a writer of a book should in any way interfere with a director’s choice, says Shirish Thorat | EXCLUSIVE 

In that case, what became the reference point for your role?
I do watch a lot of content in my daily life when I'm not shooting. So, I binge watch a lot of series and movies. I did take some aspects of the body language from the officers in such series. I did watch a couple of them. My favourite would be ‘Special Ops’.

What was the immediate response/ reaction when you were offered the role?
I actually didn't know how to respond because I'm used to being cast as the villain or a negative guy with a negative shade. So, this was a completely different genre for me so. Every director has a certain character sketch in their head and I can never understand how they can correctly find that character sometimes in the past some films. I was really fascinated to see how come Neeraj Pandey sir and Bhav Dhulia could see me in the role of Raghavendra Sethu.

What are the parameters that you've seen John before signing before saying yes to any project?
Right from the starting days of my career, I've tried to do different roles… no matter how small the role was, I've always tried to look different. I have always seen whether how different is this character, and whether this character is going to give me growth in the future? Is this character going to be remembered? Is this character going to be noticed? Is this character going to stand out no matter how small it is? So those are the things form the parameters.

Tell us about your most memorable moment while shooting for The Freelancer?
I have watched a lot of films of Anupam Kher sir. In ‘The Freelancer’, I have a couple of scenes with him, which was fantastic! I simply love working with him. He is such an amazing guy... so full of energy. The moment he walks onto the set, the whole set becomes alive!

When can we see you in a full-fledged commercial Bollywood film?
I have just entered Bollywood with ‘The Freelancer’. I am really looking forward to doing some good Bollywood films as well. I want to do some really interesting character roles, not just the usual stereotyped bad guy.

What next for you John?
I have Captain Miller (in Tamil) with Dhanush, ‘The Village’ on Amazon Prime. Also, I do hope that I sign a couple of Bollywood films after this.