Yogi Babu Plays 11 Roles, Hero to Villain, in One Film

Yogi Babu has built a career at the edge of the frame, the comic beat that lands and then hands the scene back. His next film pushes him to the centre and then some. Directed by debutant R. Kishore Kumar and produced by Suresh Mouttou under the 9 Lights banner, the yet-to-be-titled comedy action thriller asks Yogi Babu to play eleven distinct characters in a single film, from the hero to the villain, with a set of dual roles folded in and several languages spoken across them.

The premise gives him the room. Kishore Kumar describes a story built around a military helicopter that goes down, and the hunt for its black box. The hero sets out to find why the aircraft crashed, and the investigation is where the comedy and action are meant to collide. Quite how eleven versions of Yogi Babu fit into a single crash inquiry is the puzzle the film is keeping back for now.

Lead actress Aditi Ravi with the director and crew at the launch

Kishore Kumar is not a first-timer on set, only in the chair. He worked as an associate to Mohan Raja before stepping up to direct, and he has been open about the load the central conceit puts on his star. “It is an extremely challenging assignment, and Yogi Babu has been putting in tremendous effort to bring these characters to life,” he said. Playing across languages and registers, from lead to antagonist, is the kind of stretch Yogi Babu has been circling in recent lead turns like Kenatha Kaanom and the sea-set Boat.

Malayalam actress Aditi Ravi plays the female lead, with Redin Kingsley, VTV Ganesh, Panchu Subbu and A. Venkatesh in key parts. G. Balamurugan is the cinematographer, Gopi Krishna of Thani Oruvan cuts the film, and Dhamu handles art direction.

The team at the film’s launch pooja

The first schedule is already done. The second is underway abroad, split between the United Kingdom and Kenya, which is where the film’s wider ambitions show: multiple languages, foreign locations, and a character actor being handed the whole canvas for once. A title and a first look are still to come, but the shoot has already crossed two continents on the strength of a premise that lives or dies on one actor doing eleven jobs at once.