Soori, who is part of Bigg Boss Tamil-fame Mugen Rao's upcoming film, Velan, will essay the role of a Malayali in the film. 

Kavin Moorthy, an erstwhile assistant of director Siva, is making his directorial debut with this project. The filmmaker reveals that Soori's character is named Mamookka Dineshan and the actor learned Malayalam for the role. 

"The story is set in Pollachi and Soori sir is playing the second lead in the film. It is his character that enforces a major twist in the screenplay. Since he is playing a Malayali, we hired a scriptwriter for the Malayalam dialogues and Soori sir actually learned those dialogues," says Kavin, adding that the presence of Meenakshi Govindarajan, a Malayali, was helpful too. 

Since Soori is simultaneously working on the Vetri Maaran film and Sivakarthikeyan's Don, the makers of Velan had to reschedule the shoot according to the actor's call-sheet. "Since Soori sir's looks are different in each of the films, we took a 20-day break in between our shooting for him to grow his hair back," says Kavin.

With two more songs left to shoot, Kavin has already started post-production of the film. "One of those songs features Soori sir, so we will shoot it after the assembly elections."

Also starring Prabhu, Hareesh Peradi, Thambi Ramaiah, Lollu Sabha Swaminathan, TM Karthik, Prankster Rahul, and Brigida Saga (of Aaha Kalyanam-fame), Velan has music by Gopi Sundar, editing by Sarath and cinematography by Gopi Jagadeeswaran.

The makers of Velan are aiming to release their film in May.