‘I should blame myself’: Kunchacko Boban on staying away from AMMA row as he returns as a haunted cop in ‘Unmadham’

Dubai: Malayalam actor Kunchacko Boban has made a career out of playing men wrestling with their demons. In Unmadham, his latest Malayalam-language psychological thriller, he once again slips into the uniform of a flawed police officer whose biggest battles aren't just with crime, but with his own mind.

Ironically, the actor is just as introspective off-screen.

As Malayalam cinema continues to reckon with the fallout from the AMMA controversy and calls for greater accountability within the industry, Kunchacko isn't pretending he has been at the forefront of the conversation. Instead, he offers an answer that is refreshingly devoid of spin.

"I should blame myself for keeping myself a bit away from all those things that are happening around," Kunchacko tells Gulf News.

Rather than reaching for a diplomatic soundbite, the actor admits that meaningful change demands more than simply issuing statements.

"It is very easy to give an opinion. It is very easy to stand out there and give your take with no context. But getting into the matter, dealing with it, that requires the energy, the effort, the commitment, the time... which unfortunately, I am not able to provide."

Calling himself "a very bad multitasker," Kunchacko says he tends to immerse himself completely in whichever film he's making, often at the expense of everything else.

He doesn't defend that approach either.

"That's a bad thing to have. That's a bad thing to do, from my part," he admits, before adding that he hopes more people—including younger actors—step up because "everyone should come forward. They are all part and parcel of this industry... I will definitely be there for the rightful things to happen."

For now, though, his immediate focus is Unmadham, out in UAE cinemas today, a film he believes offers something audiences haven't quite seen before.

At first glance, Unmadham appears to tick all the familiar boxes of a Malayalam investigative thriller. There's a police officer, a mystery and plenty of psychological tension.

But Kunchacko insists there's much more lurking beneath the surface.

The film reunites him with writer and real-life former cop Shahi Kabir, whose grounded police dramas such as Joseph, Nayattu and Officer On Duty have earned cult status. This time, however, they both venture into a territory that they have never explored before.

"In Shahi's stories, cops are gloriously flawed. The stories and incidents are real-life inspired as well. But in this movie, he has an extra USP attached to it. He has a small supernatural element attached to it."

That supernatural thread was precisely what convinced Kunchakco to return to yet another police role.

Interestingly, Unmadham was first narrated to him even before Officer On Duty. Apparently, he even rejected the brilliant cop-drama Ronth believing he has done too many cop roles and this may just be one more to his pile of cop-interrupted roles.

At the time, he wasn't convinced.

"I had some concerns about the story, how it was shaping up. But after all these years and all those changes, when he came up with another revised script, that sounded interesting."

He believes the blend of psychological suspense, grounded policing and supernatural intrigue will give audiences the kind of theatrical experience that streaming platforms simply cannot replicate.

For Boban, portraying SI Shelley wasn't about creating a larger-than-life hero.

Instead, the character became an extension of Shahi Kabir himself.

"Whenever I was in doubt about a character, about how to emote in a sequence or in a shot, I just had to look at Shahi... Shelley is like another character of Shahi r in real life. So that made things much easier."

The actor also heaps praise on debut director Kiran Das, whose years as an acclaimed editor gave him confidence that Unmadham would be technically polished despite being his first feature as director.

"He has edited so many movies which are commercial and critically acclaimed. When he is coming as a debutant director, there are no high expectations from the audience. That expectation barrier is lower, which I think is good for the movie."

The irony isn't lost on Boban.

Over the past few years, he's become Malayalam cinema's go-to actor for morally conflicted police officers. Whether it's Nayattu, Officer On Duty or now Unmadham, filmmakers seem convinced nobody wears emotional baggage with a police badge quite like him.

Kunchacko laughs that he's now actively trying to break that cycle.

"I'm getting so many police-based stories coming my way. The answer that I'm telling them is, 'Please don't come to me with investigations and cops. Please don't come to me now.'"

Interestingly, He also turned down the critically acclaimed cop drama Ronth, believing he had already played too many police officers and that it would simply become another addition to his long list of cop roles.

Instead, he longs for something with a little more colour.

"I am just waiting for a full-on entertainer movie in which I can leave all my worries aside, have some fun, have some love, have some flair, have some passion; but which does have a soul inside."

The shift isn't accidental.

Boban says reinventing himself became a conscious mission after taking a career break in 2005.

"That was the best decision that I took during my film career. I could overhaul the whole thing—the image, the outlook, the thought process. I wanted to bring out the actor inside me to the audience."

Gone is the actor content with romantic leads.

"I just wanted to shatter my so-called image which I was stuck with for so many years."

Today, he says, he embraces the unexpected.

"I am getting so much daring and out-of-the-box thoughts and ideas and characters, which are doing magic for me. I'm just here with my arms spread and my heart full with whatever is coming my way."

Even as audiences increasingly wait for films to arrive on streaming platforms, Boban remains convinced that cinema halls still offer something irreplaceable.

"Human beings are social beings. They want to be together. A communal experience is something different, which you can't get in a closed room... The kind of magic happening in theatres, it's irreplaceable."

Instead, he believes the film will live or die by audience reactions.

It's also why he isn't banking on opening-day hysteria for Unmadham. And did you know there's a Bollywood connect to his new film. Presented by T-Series and Panorama Studios, Unmadham already has Bollywood heavyweights behind it, making remake chatter almost inevitable. But Kunchacko would rather audiences discover the film on its own terms before anyone starts imagining another version.

"We just want people to give their opinion first. Word of mouth will be the main cross-bearer for this movie," he says.

Earlier in our conversation, he'd laughed when I asked him about the one remake trope I hope Unmadham escapes: an unnecessary item number with "very questionable dance steps."

Beneath the joke lay a serious point. For him, Malayalam cinema's greatest strength is its willingness to live in the grey; to embrace moral ambiguity, flawed characters and uncomfortable truths. That's the DNA he fears often gets lost in translation.

For an actor who has spent the better part of two decades reinventing himself, he's no longer chasing image.

He's chasing stories that refuse to be sanitised; even if that means resisting the very "bastardisation" that success sometimes brings.

As for that nightmare scenario I joked about: a Bollywood remake capped off with an item number and "very risque dance steps"?

He laughs.

"Fortunately, that didn't happen."

That exchange reminded me of a nickname he'd wickedly embraced. Somewhere along the way, he'd apparently become "Psycho Chacko."

Which, let's be honest, suits him far better than Item Number Chacko ever could.