Unda (film)

Unda is an upcoming Indian Malayalam-language action comedy film co-written and directed by Khalid Rahman and jointly produced by Moviee Mill's Krishnan Sethukumar and Gemini Studios. The film stars Mammootty, Shine Tom Chacko, Jacob Gregory and Arjun Ashokan. The music was composed by Prashant Pillai. Harshad co-wrote the screenplay. It progresses when a nine men police unit from Kerala led by Sub-inspector Manikandan C.P. is sent to a Maoist affected area of Chhattisgarh as part of the election duty.

Principal photography began in October 2018 and took place at locations in Kannur, Kasargod, Wayanad, Thrissur, Mangalore, Mysore, Chhattisgarh and Nilambur. Filming concluded in March 2019. Unda is scheduled to release on 2019 June 6 on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.

Premise
The film narrates the story of a nine men police unit who travel from Kerala to a Maoist affected area in Chhattisgarh for the Parliamentary election duty. Sub-inspector Manikandan C.P. leads the unit in this mission.

Cast

 * Mammootty as S. I. Manikandan C.P. / Mani
 * Shine Tom Chacko as HDR Jojo Samson
 * Arjun Ashokan as PC Gireesh T.P.
 * Jacob Gregory as PC Varghese Kuruvila / Smooth Varghese
 * Ranjith as C. I. Mathews Anthony
 * Bhagwan Tiwari as Kapil Dev
 * Omkar Das Manikpuri as Kunalchand
 * Chien Ho Liao as ITBP Commandant Dakota Akanito
 * Asif Ali (Cameo Appearance)
 * Vinay Forrt (Cameo Appearance)
 * Sudhi Koppa (Cameo Appearance)
 * Dileesh Pothan
 * Kalabhavan Shajohn as Sam J. Matan
 * Shaheen as Vincent James
 * Rony David as PC Aji Peter
 * Gokulan as PC Gokulan Balachandran
 * Lukman as PC Biju Kumar
 * Abhiram Poduval as PC Unni Krishnan A.
 * Noushad Bombay as PC Noushad Ali

Development
In early November 2017, it was reported that director Khalid Rahman will be directing his second movie after Anuraga Karikkin Vellam titled Unda with Mammootty in lead. He plays a Sub-inspector's role. Rahman along with Harshad has written the script for the film which is inspired by a true story. The team later confirmed that Shine Tom Chacko, Jacob Gregory and Arjun Ashokan will also be joining the cast. Rahman and his brother cinematographer Jimshi Khalid had visited North Indian states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand as part of the location hunt. According to producer, the film is an action-comedy. In 2018, Dileesh Pothan and Bollywood actors Omkar Das Manikpuri, Bhagwan Tiwari and Chien Ho Liao were officially added to the cast. The film is made on a ₹12 crore budget.

Filming
Principal photography of the film began in October 2018. Shooting was planned for 60 days in Kasargod, Chhattisgarh, and Mangalore. On 25 November 2018, action director Sham Kaushal joined the team in Kasargod. Talking about the action sequences, Kaushal said: “We did most of it in sequence as per written in the script, but then we also had to improvise a few portions while keeping the basic structure intact.” On 19 February 2019, the film was shifted to Wayanad for its second schedule. After completing some scenes at Viyyoor, Thrissur, the team shifted to Chhattisgarh to shoot it's final portions. It also marked as the first Malayalam movie to be shot at the location. Filming was wrapped on 23 March 2019 in Chhattisgarh.

Soundtrack
The film features original background score and songs composed by Prashant Pillai.

Marketing and release
Unda is scheduled to be released on June 6 on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr 2019. Official title poster was released through social medias on 21 September 2018. Mammootty released Unda's first look poster on 15 April 2019, through Facebook and Instagram. On 16 May 2019, a 40-second teaser was released on YouTube.