Unni Mukundan

It took a run of smaller parts before Unni Mukundan found his breakthrough in Vysakh's action comedy Mallu Singh (2012), which ran for more than 100 days. Born Unnikrishnan Mukundan Nair on 22 September 1987 in Thrissur, the actor and producer grew up in Ahmedabad, where he went to school, and later studied English literature and journalism at Prajyoti Niketan College, Pudukad. His first film was the Tamil Seedan (2011), a remake of Nandanam. He entered Malayalam, where most of his work lies, with Bombay March 12 opposite Mammootty, which won him several best newcomer prizes, including from SIIMA. Commercial successes followed in Vikramadithyan (2014), KL 10 Patthu (2015), Style (2016) and Achayans (2017), the last also marking his debut as a lyricist and singer. In the Telugu film Janatha Garage (2016) he played Mohanlal's son in a negative role, and he appeared in the Tamil film Garudan (2024). Meppadiyan, his first production, brought him a National Film Award in 2021. Malikappuram (2022) and Marco (2024) are his highest-grossing films. He is set to lead Whistle, an announced Malayalam project.