Unni Mukundan’s next project will be Meppadiyan, a thriller based on true events. The film, written and helmed by debutant Vishnu Mohan, was formally launched with a pooja ceremony. Unni will play the male lead while Noorin Shereef and Aparna Janardhanan have been cast as the female leads.

Unni said that he found the project very promising and has put aside many of his other projects to fully focus on this film. Unni and TG Ravi will be the film’s central combination, with a set of accomplished names such as Sreenivasan, Saiju Kurup, Lalu Alex, Kundara Johny, and Vijayaraghavan in the supporting cast.

Said to be based on an incident in the life of the director, Meppadiyan will have Unni playing a garage owner named Jayakrishnan, who encounters some unexpected events in his life. Actor-producer Vijay Babu, who was part of the cast initially, called the script “thrilling” and “family-oriented” and said he couldn’t be part of it due to other commitments.

Meppadiyan is being bankrolled by Satheesh Mohan, who previously produced Muhsin Parari’s directorial debut KL-10 Paththu (also starring Unni). Neil D’Cunha will be behind the camera while Shameer Muhammed does the editing. The music will be composed by Rahul Subramaniam.

Unni will be seen next as a warrior named Chandroth Panicker in Mamangam, which is set to release on December 12.