Nimisha Sajayan on being Mala Jogi, the lead character in webseries ‘Poacher’

Nimisha Sajayan on being Mala Jogi, lead character in webseries Poacher and her roles in Tamil and Hindi films

“Who will say no to Mala Jogi?” Nimisha Sajayan laughs as she asks the rhetorical question.  Nimisha says director Richie Mehta is someone she has always wanted to work with. So, when he approached her to play the lead of Mala in the eight-part crime thriller Poacher, she did not have to think twice to say yes.

Her role as the tough, no-nonsense Mala, a Kerala Forest range officer, in Poacher is winning accolades for the talented actor.  

“I am a huge admirer of his work and when he offered me the role of Mala, I accepted. She is close to my heart. She is fearless, sensitive and goes through a rollercoaster of emotions. So, why not Mala?” she counters.

“Riche is such an amazing human being. Right from the time I met him, he told me, ‘Nimisha, I am doing this for the elephants, for wildlife and conservation.”

The series is based on a real-life incident in the nineties when dedicated officers of the Forest Service busted an international ivory smuggling racket that targeted elephants in the Western Ghats. Nimisha admits that she was unaware about the poaching until Richie told her about it.

“Mala is an amalgamation of three officers in the Indian Forest Service. I talked to one of them for more than an hour to understand the person and how he interacts with his colleagues and his family. That was my only preparation to portray the character,” says Nimisha, speaking on the phone.

“There was one question I asked him that helped me get under the skin of Mala. I asked him ‘Chetta, how do you react when you hear of such cases (of poaching)? Then he asked me ‘Nimisha, how would you react if something close to your heart is taken from you?’ I told him that I would be heartbroken. He told me that is how he feels when he hears about such cases. He told me ‘The jungle is my home’. That one sentence helped me understand him and how emotionally connected he is to the jungle.”