Debut and breakthrough (2011–2016) In 2011, Unni made his film debut with the
Tamil film
Seedan, a remake of the Malayalam film
Nandanam. Unni entered the Malayalam film industry with
Bombay March 12 featuring alongside
Mammootty, directed by
Babu Janardhanan. For his performance in
Bombay March 12, he earned awards as best newcomer from
SIIMA,
Asianet Film Awards,
Asiavision and
Vanitha Film Awards. He played a supporting role in
Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty, directed by
T. K. Rajeev Kumar. The turning point in his career came with the movie
Mallu Singh (2012) directed by
Vyshakh. It became a huge hit and ran for over 100 days. He did cameo appearances in movies
Theevram and
The Hitlist. In the same year, he appeared in
Ezham Suryan and
I Love Me directed by
B. Unnikrishnan. In 2013 he appeared in
Ithu Pathiramanal and
Orissa, both directed by
M. Padmakumar. Also he was seen in
D Company, an anthology of three independently shot
action films. In 2015, he was seen in supporting role in the
Mammootty-starrer
Fireman, directed by
Deepu Karunakaran. In the same year, he played the lead role in the movie
Samrajyam II: Son of Alexander as Jordan, the son of Alexander who was the protagonist in the prequel. His next release was
KL 10 Patthu written and directed by debutant
Muhsin Parari. In 2016, he did the action thriller movie
Style which turned out to be a decent commercial entertainer. He was then seen in the critically acclaimed movie
Kaattum Mazhayum and fantasy romantic comedy film
Oru Murai Vanthu Parthaya. Regional films (2016–2021) Unni made his Telugu debut with the film
Janatha Garage in an negative role portraying
Mohanlal's son. The film was both commercially successful and critically acclaimed. It was among the
highest grossing Telugu films of the year. In the 2017 film
Achayans, he made his debut as a lyricist and singer. In the same year, he was seen in another multi-starrer movie
Avarude Raavukal along with
Asif Ali which received mixed reviews. In August of the same year,
Clint by director
Harikumar was released, in which he played the role of Joseph, father of
Edmund Thomas Clint, a
child prodigy known for having drawn over 25,000 paintings during his short life of seven years. He was seen in two different looks as a 35-year old and a 73-year-old man in the film. For this film he received Ramu Kariat Movie Award for the Best Actor. His next releases of 2017 was
Mammootty-starrer
Masterpiece in which he played the villain and
Tharangam in which he had an extended cameo. In 2018, he did the Telugu-Tamil bilingual film
Bhaagamathie featuring
Anushka Shetty which was commercially successful and critically acclaimed. His next releases were two thriller movies
Ira and
Chanakyathanthram. Both the films received positive reviews and were commercially successful. His first release of 2019 was
Haneef Adeni's
Mikhael, in which he was the antagonist Marco Jr. He was then seen in the film
Meppadiyan which had a theatrical release on 14 January 2022. Later, he was seen in the Telugu film
Khiladi.
Malikappuram and beyond (2022–present) His next appearance was in
Malikappuram which earned him critical acclaim and praise. In the Telugu film
Yashoda, he portrayed a negative role. In 2024, he starred in
Jai Ganesh, which he also produced, and portrayed a negative character in the Tamil film,
Garudan. He next starred in
Marco, a spin-off of the eponymous character from
Mikhael which opened to positive reviews, it emerged as a huge box-office success and also his first
100 crore film, further cementing his position as a bankable artist. ==Other work==