On the occasion of PM Narendra Modi's 75th birthday today (September 17), a biopic on his life and journey, Maa Vande, was announced. Malayalam actor Unni Mukundan will play India's Prime Minister in the upcoming biopic. Meet the actor who has steadily established himself as a lead star in Malayalam cinema, and recently made a splash with his film Marco. (Also read: Interview: Marco star Unni Mukundan reveals he's working on a film with Vikram, picks Allu Arjun's Pushpa as inspiration)Meet Unni MukundanUnni Mukundan was born in Thrissur, Kerala on 22 September 1987. He completed his graduation in English literature and Journalism at Prajyoti Niketan College, Pudukad.Unni made his acting debut in 2011 with the Tamil film Seedan. The film, which also starred Dhanush, was a remake of the 2002 Malayalam film, Nandanam. He then debuted in the Malayalam film industry with the film Bombay March 12, in which he featured alongside Mammootty. This role fetched him several awards in the best debutant category.The 2012 film Mallu Singh proved to be his breakthrough, making him a household name. The film was a huge success, and he followed it with more lead parts in Ezham Suryan, I Love Me and Ithu Pathiramanal.Career progressionUnni then broke into Tollywood, debuting with the film Janatha Garage. The film was a huge success and was among the highest-grossing Telugu films of 2016. Starring alongside Anushka Shetty in Bhaagamathie also turned out to be successful as the film. Malikappuram, the 2022 release, earned him immense critical acclaim and established Unni as a leading star in Malayalam Cinema.Release of Marco 2024 was a crucial year for Unni with the release of Marco, the violent action thriller in which he played the titular part. Haneef Adneni’s Malayalam film made history as one of the ‘most violent’ films to be made in India. A few weeks after Unni Mukundan stated that he would not be a part of the sequel due to the ‘negativity’ surrounding it, the production house, Cube Entertainments, stated that they will be exploring the universe further. The film went on to cross the ₹100 crore mark at the box office."After being in the industry 13 years, I was keenly observing how the movie was performing in the Hindi market. We started with 30 shows and went on to do 3,500 shows a day! That was huge. I didn’t have face value and the film did well because people liked the movie, the performances, the overall look and feel, the production values, etc. I would consider Marco as one of the best films that I’ve done – the movie survived sheerly because of its overall quality,” he said in an interview with HT.Now, Unni is stepping into a new role as he gears up to star in the biopic Maa Vande.Sharing the announcement about starring in Modi's biopic, Unni wrote on his X account, “A man’s story that rises beyond battles… to become a revolution for the ages. #MaaVande it is. Wishing the Honourable Prime Minister @Narendramodi Ji a very Happy Birthday. May glory be revived and brighter things await.”Kranthi Kumar C.H. is set to write and direct the project, with Veer Reddy M. producing under the Silver Cast Creations banner.