Unni Mukundan

Debut and breakthrough (2011–2013)

In 2011, Unni made his film debut with the Tamil film Seedan, a remake of the Malayalam film Nandanam.^[12] Unni entered the Malayalam film industry with Bombay March 12^[13] featuring alongside Mammootty, directed by Babu Janardhanan. For his performance in Bombay March 12, he earned awards as best newcomer from SIIMA, Asianet Film Awards, Asiavision and Vanitha Film Awards. He played a supporting role in Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty, directed by T. K. Rajeev Kumar.^{[14][15][16][17]}

The turning point in his career came with the movie Mallu Singh (2012) directed by Vyshakh. It became a huge hit and ran for over 100 days.^[18] He did cameo appearances in movies Theevram and The Hitlist. In the same year, he appeared in Ezham Suryan and I Love Me directed by B. Unnikrishnan.^[19][20]

In 2013 he appeared in Ithu Pathiramanal and Orissa, both directed by M. Padmakumar.^[21] Also he was seen in D Company, an anthology of three independently shot action films.^[22]

In 2015, he was seen in supporting role in the Mammootty-starrer Fireman, directed by Deepu Karunakaran.^[23] In the same year, he played the lead role in the movie Samrajyam II: Son of Alexander as Jordan, the son of Alexander who was the protagonist in the prequel.^[24] His next release was KL 10 Patthu written and directed by debutant Muhsin Parari.^[25]

In 2016, he did the action thriller movie Style which turned out to be a decent commercial entertainer.^[26] He was then seen in the critically acclaimed movie Kaattum Mazhayum and fantasy romantic comedy film Oru Murai Vanthu Parthaya.^[27]

Regional films (2014–2021)

Unni made his Tollywood debut with the film Janatha Garage in an antagonistic role as Raghava, son of Sathyam (Mohanlal).^[28] The film was both commercially successful and critically acclaimed. It was among the highest grossing Telugu films of the year.^[29]

In the 2017 film Achayans, he made his debut as a lyricist and singer.^[30][31] In the same year, he was seen in another multi-starrer movie Avarude Raavukal along with Asif Ali which received mixed reviews.^[32] In August of the same year, Clint by director Harikumar was released, in which he played the role of Joseph, father of Edmund Thomas Clint, a child prodigy known for having drawn over 25,000 paintings during his short life of seven years. He was seen in two different looks as a 35-year old and a 73-year-old man in the film.^[33] For this film he received Ramu Kariat Movie Award for the Best Actor.^[34] His next releases of 2017 was Mammootty-starrer Masterpiece in which he played the villain and Tharangam in which he had an extended cameo.^[35]

In 2018, he did the Tamil-Telugu bilingual film Bhaagamathie featuring Anushka Shetty which was commercially successful and critically acclaimed.^[36][37] His next releases were two thriller movies Ira and Chanakyathanthram.^[38] Both the films received positive reviews and were commercially successful.^[39]

His first release of 2019 was Haneef Adeni's Mikhael, in which he was the antagonist Marco Jr.^[40][41][42] He was then seen in the film Meppadiyan which had a theatrical release on 14 January 2022.^[43] Later, he was seen in the Telugu film Khiladi.^[44][45]

Malikappuram and beyond (2022–present)

His next appearance was in Malikappuram which earned him critical acclaim and praise.^[46] In the Telugu film Yashoda, he portrayed a negative role.^[47]

In 2024, he starred in Jai Ganesh, which he also produced, and portrayed a negative character in the Tamil film, Garudan.^[48][49] He next starred in Marco, a spin-off of the eponymous character from Mikhael which opened to positive reviews, it emerged as a huge box-office success and also his first 100 crore film, further cementing his position as a bankable artist.

Television