This boy just wants to have fun!

Gulshan Devaiah, Janhvi Kapoor and Roshan Mathew star in the film

Presented with a commercial offering, Roshan Mathew says he is drawn to the "person on the paper". Set to feature in the upcoming Janhvi Kapoor-starrer Ulajh, Mathew admits the narrative met all the requirements essential for the making of a thriller. "I agreed to do the film because it was unlike anything I had done before. I had a lot of fun while shooting the film because the energy on the set was youthful. I believe these aspects always translate to the performance on screen."

Although a spy thriller, Ulajh may well be seen as an action drama, a genre that has been fairly exploited in the past few years. Ask him if he believes the audience has grown weary of the genre, and he says, "No one knows what is working. You have to simply be an actor and be out of your head while shooting. While you may re-evaluate [your choices] in the run-up to the release, you cannot mull over these aspects while shooting. What motivates me is the desire to have fun at work. I never lose sight of that."

The desire to have fun, however, took both him and his director Sudhanshu Saria on an exhaustive research process. "Sudhanshu knew exactly what he wanted, so we took ample time to build this character and zero in on his beliefs. This character has a fair approach. Sudhanshu was collaborative - he heard my opinion and gave me the space to win him over. We had a lot of reading sessions and workshops."