Poacher cast exclusive interview: ‘This is kind of work one can only do selflessly’

Poacher has been receiving unanimous praise from critics and viewers ever since it released on Prime Video last week. The eight-episode long series marks the return of director Richie Mehta after his International Emmy-winning show Delhi Crime.

Based on true events, the masterful show takes place in the jungles of Kerala, where a team of dedicated forest range officers and other members follow a trail of investigation on the illegal ivory trade.

In this exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, creator Richie Mehta along with actors Roshan Mathew (who played Alan Joseph), and Dibyendu Bhattacharya (who played Field Director of the Kerala Forest Department, Neel Banerjee), sat down for an extensive chat about the process of approaching this important story, shooting on location, and the effect this experience had on them.

( Poacher review: Richie Mehta delivers a brilliantly atmospheric tale on illegal ivory trade)

Congratulations on Poacher. I first watched three episodes of it at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it ended on a cliffhanger. I wondered all this while when will it release and now, here we are. What was happening in between?

Roshan: For us, it has been two years since we finished shooting! (laughs)

Richie: Yeah, almost. I will tell you what’s happened. It was the animals. We had finished the first three episodes with the animals, but the rest were not done at that time. We needed time and as you can tell it required work and had to be flawless.

I was not going to rush it with the team with whom we were working on, specially that aspect to the story. I think it is very unique and very special. I wanted to make sure that once it goes out to everybody, that we had done everything we can. So it took time.