Chennai, Jul 5 (IANS): Actor Mahat Raghavendra, who plays one of the leads in Venkat Prabhu-directed Tamil sports drama "Chennai 600028 II: Second Innings", plays a mute character in the film.

"He plays a mute character and unlike his previous films where he has mostly played the smart, chocolate boy roles, he will be seen in a very different avatar and his look will catch everybody by surprise," a source from the film's unit told IANS.

For his role, Mahat had to become a shade darker.

"He was required to become (a shade) dark, and the role also required him to wear make-up. The whole make-up process would take about two hours. It wasn't an easy role to essay, because it was strenuous and painful at times," he said.

Also starring Jai, Shiva, Premji, Nithiin Sathya, Vijay Vasanth, Vaibhav and Sampath Raj among others, the film is produced by Venkat Prabhu.

Mahat plays a character from Madurai in the film, which is about street cricket.

"Mahat didn't find playing the character challenging, because Venkat would enact scenes to him before every shot. All that was expected from Mahat was come to the sets without any preparation and just follow Venkat's lead," the source added.

The film has music by Yuvan Shankar Raja.