Sai Abhyankkar joins Shane Nigam-Shanthnu Bhagyaraj's Balti

The upcoming Malayalam-Tamil bilingual Balti, starring Shane Nigam in his 25th film alongside Shanthnu Bhagyaraj, has finally found its composer. Earlier today, the film's makers announced that Sai Abhyankkar, known for his songs 'Aasa Kooda' and 'Katchi Sera', has been roped in to compose music for it. The announcement confirms the speculation about Sai being its composer that started after he recently reposted the film's title glimpse, writing "hmm", on X. The film marks Sai's debut in Malayalam as a composer. The makers dropped an announcement video where Mohanlal welcomes Sai to Malayalam cinema.

An action drama with a sports element, Balti marks the debut of writer-director Unni Sivalingam, and it also stars Preethi Asrani in her Malayalam debut. Shane stars in the film as a kabaddi player named Udhayan. The recently released title glimpse video shows police chasing Shane's character, only to land at a kabaddi arena in which he receives a rousing welcome. As he gets into the court, Udhayan he does a somersault (balti).

On the technical front, Balti has Alex J Pulickal for cinematography, Ashik S for art direction, as well as Action Sandhosh and Vicky for stunt choreography. Reportedly, editor Shivkumar Panicker is also attached to the project. Santhosh T Kuruvilla and Binu George Alexander are producing the film under their namesake banners. The film is slated for an Onam release.

Sai Abhyankkar's upcoming projects include STR 49, Suriya's 45th film Karuppu, and Benz with Raghavendra Lawrence and Nivin Pauly.