Exclusive! “I had to undo everything that I’ve done as an actor till date…” – John Kokken on his preparation for his character in The Freelancer – The Conclusion

MUMBAI: ‘The Freelancer’ starring Mohit Raina, Kashmira Pardeshi and Anupam Kher is about an extraction mission where a girl is held captive in the war-torn hostile environment of Syria, and her escape from the world of death.

It also stars Sushant Singh, John Kokken, Gauri Balaji and Navneet Malik, Manjiri Faddnis, Sarah Jane Dias amongst others.

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The series is based on the book – ‘A Ticket to Syria’ by Shirish Thorat. It is directed by Bhav Dhulia, produced by Friday Storytellers and Neeraj Pandey is the creator and showrunner. The book attempts to share the story about the insidious operations of the Islamic State, and how the terror group has perfected a cross-country operation that converts thousands to a depraved cause.

While season 1 of the series was left on a cliff-hanger, now, the series is coming back with the second season, The Freelancer – The Conclusion. The series is going to show how Avinash will finally go for an extraction mission and save Aleeya from danger.

Now, in an exclusive conversation with Tellychakkar, John Kokken talked about the audience's expectations, his initial reaction to the role and much more.

What can the audience expect this time?

To this, John Kokken said that as the audience already knows the situation, now they will get to see the execution and how the hero will come and save Aleeya. He added that the audience can expect a lot of action.

What was your initial reaction when you were first approached for the character?

To this, John Kokken said that he has mostly played villain roles and so he was very sure that he was not going to get this part because a lot of people have told him that he has face that’s suited to play a villain but the casting director was very sure and had earlier pitched him for Special Ops too. Praising Neeraj Pandey, John said that Neeraj liked his audition tape and that the director really has a unique mindset as John was never approached for such a character ever who was so subtle, in contrast to the characters of villain that he has played till in South movies which are over-the-top and loud. He added that this is the reason why it was fun and challenging for him.

What went into the preparation of the character?

To this, John Kokken said that he had to undo everything he has done as an actor till date and the roles that he has played. He added that playing a villain is easy as he has to be loud, have to look a certain way, your expressions are a certain way, and being a part of South films he was used to playing characters which were over-the-top. However, for this particular character, everything was very subtle, everything had to be undone, he had to work on his accent. The actor revealed how he was born and brought up in Mumbai but due to doing movies in the South side he had lost his touch on Hindi and so he had to get back to learning brushing up his Hindi. He also revealed that Kay Kay Menon’s character in Special Ops is his favourite character and so he watched his character in order to copy the character in terms of the tough and soft person’s character that he played in the series.

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This was our conversation with the actor. What do you think about the actor and his role in the series? Tell us your views in the comment section below.

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