Yogi Babu leads the story in Tamil film ‘Gurkha’

The shock of curly hair sets him apart as does his one-liners delivered with a straight face. Tamil comedian Yogi Babu is the busiest actor today. With a release every other week, Babu is exploring a wide gamut of roles.

After playing Lord Yama in the recently released Tamil film ‘Dharmaprabhu’, he plays a key role in upcoming Tamil film, ‘Gurkha’.

As the title denotes, Babu is a security guard in this hostage drama written and directed by Sam Anton.

When an American ambassador is kidnapped and several people are caught inside a shopping mall, it is this ‘gurkha’ who rises to the occasion.

He is assisted by a dog in this operation. Canadian model Elyssa plays the American ambassador.

Babu is clearly destiny’s child. He owes it to director Ram Bala of the famed ‘Lollu Sabha’ comic television series, who spotted the broad built man with a tonsured head among the onlookers during a shoot in Chennai.

“Would you like to act, he asked me,” reminisced Babu. The director asked Babu to imitate few actors, including legendary Sivaji Ganesan from films.

Following a short stint in the army, he was hopping around jobs then.

Two weeks later, Babu received a call from Ram Bala and his career began with the ‘Lollu Sabha’ series.

He stepped into cinema with ‘Yogi’ and has not looked back since then. Babu won awards for his performance in films ‘Aandavan Kattalai, Pariyerum Perumaalum’ and ‘Kolamaavu Kokila.’

Working simultaneously in more than one film, Babu is often hopping sets.

He praised director Sam Anton for taking a risk with a comedian leading ‘Gurkha’s’ story.

“Sam has a knack with comedy. I believe he is the next Sundar C [Tamil director known for his comic stories],” said Babu.

On the anvil are films that include Vijay’s ‘Bigil’ Rajnikanth’s ‘Darbar’ and ‘Sivakarthikeyan’s ‘Hero.’

“‘Gurkha’ is a fun film with many laugh aloud moments,” assured Babu, whose next release is ‘Gorilla.’

The supporting cast includes Anand Raj, Livingstone, Manobala, Charlie and Mayilsami.

Raj Aryan has composed music. Krishnan Vasanth has handled cinematography.

‘Gurkha’ is produced by Anton and friends under the banner Four Monkeys.