<div>For Shukri Yahaya, it&rsquo;s never been about chasing the spotlight. It&rsquo;s been about honouring the journey &mdash; and making sure the story always comes first.</div>

There&rsquo;s a rare kind of ease that settles in when you&rsquo;re around Shukri Yahaya. <a href="https://www.larrieshoes.com">It&rsquo;s warm, laid-back, real.</a> And if you&rsquo;ve spent enough time brushing shoulders with personalities who operate on ego and edge, you&rsquo;ll know how uncommon that is. Shukri, though, walks a tightrope of contradictions &mdash; gentle but unshakable, firm but full of empathy. It&rsquo;s this quiet duality that&rsquo;s earned him a devoted fanbase: equal parts charmed and grounded by his humility. But don&rsquo;t mistake softness for slack. At 37, Shukri has been nothing <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/interview-this-is-how-noki-does-it">short of a force in the Malaysian drama circuit</a>. He&rsquo;s carried roles that left lasting imprints on the national psyche &mdash; Airil in&nbsp;Andainya Takdir, and the unforgettable Khuzairi in&nbsp;7 Hari Mencintaiku. &ldquo;7 Hari Mencintaiku&nbsp;definitely changed something in me,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;That role taught me patience &mdash; how to slow down, think things through, and not let emotions take the wheel. It stopped being just a character and started bleeding into my own life.&rdquo; Still, nothing quite lit that internal spark like his latest outing in&nbsp;Blood Brothers: Bara Naga. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first time I walked off set feeling full,&rdquo; Shukri confesses. &ldquo;Like I didn&rsquo;t hold back. I gave everything to Fadlan &mdash; and I think people can feel that in every scene.&rdquo;

The film, a brooding action-thriller co-directed by Syafiq Yusof and Abhilash Chandra, was released on April 10, 2025, as part of Skop Productions&rsquo; 40th anniversary celebration. It follows Ariff, a loyal bodyguard framed for betraying his Mafia family. On the run, he turns to his estranged brother, Jaki, while being hunted by his former comrade Ghaz, who now leads the elite team they once belonged to. It&rsquo;s a story steeped in blood ties and moral reckonings, a meditation on loyalty, betrayal, and the messy pursuit of redemption. And at its core is Shukri Yahaya &mdash; battle-scarred, emotionally wired, and proving once again that he&rsquo;s not just in the game. He&rsquo;s redefining how it&rsquo;s played. Despite the rave reviews &mdash; five-star ratings splashed across almost every local film platform, and one critic even declaring it &ldquo;the level of cinema we&rsquo;ve always wanted from a local production&rdquo; &mdash; Shukri Yahaya still finds it hard to believe he was part of&nbsp;Blood Brothers: Bara Naga, let alone that he said yes in the first place. <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/interview-naim-daniel-has-notes">After years of playing the long game in the world of television drama</a>, Shukri was itching for a shift &mdash; something that rattled the rhythm a little. So when director Abhilash Chandra approached him to play Fadlan, he didn&rsquo;t hesitate. &ldquo;I needed something different. A bit of risk. A bit of air,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And when Abhilash offered the role, I didn&rsquo;t think twice.&rdquo;

There was also a personal bonus: sharing the screen with Zamarul Hisham. &ldquo;That was a full-circle moment,&rdquo; Shukri says, smiling. &ldquo;We both came up through drama series, so on set we&rsquo;d joke &mdash; &lsquo;If this movie flops, we&rsquo;re heading straight back to TV.&rsquo; But behind the banter, we were dead serious about pushing ourselves. We wanted to prove we could evolve. That we belonged on a bigger stage.&rdquo; And evolve he did. Clocking in at 130 minutes,&nbsp;Blood Brothers: Bara Naga has etched itself into the timeline of Malaysian cinema with an impact that goes beyond just box office numbers. Audiences and critics alike have applauded its sharp cinematography, relentless choreography, and emotionally anchored performances from a stacked cast that includes Syafiq Kyle, Sharnaaz Ahmad, Amelia Henderson, and Shukri himself. &ldquo;Honestly, I was nervous,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even want to watch the premiere. I kept thinking, What if it doesn&rsquo;t land? What if we missed the mark?&rdquo; But then the lights came on. The credits rolled. And something shifted. &ldquo;The reaction was immediate. The buzz came in waves &mdash; online, on TV, everywhere. It was surreal.&rdquo;

The evolution of Malaysian cinema isn&rsquo;t just noticeable &mdash; it&rsquo;s undeniable. Over the past few years, the industry has been hitting its stride, both in quality and in storytelling, with local films racking up accolades far beyond our borders. It&rsquo;s a thrilling time to be in Malaysia, especially if you&rsquo;re part of the creative engine pushing this cultural wave forward. And Shukri Yahaya? He&rsquo;s right in the thick of it. &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s one thing I&rsquo;d tell anyone in this business &mdash; it&rsquo;s to dream,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I remember telling Sharnaaz Ahmad,&nbsp;&lsquo;I want to be part of something big. Something that makes history.&rsquo;&nbsp;And now, looking at what&nbsp;Blood Brothers: Bara Naga has become&hellip; maybe we did just that.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s a powerful statement from someone who came into the industry with quiet intent. Shukri&rsquo;s beginnings were humble, but he was never invisible. I&rsquo;ll be honest, the first time I saw him on screen, it was in a drama my family was obsessed with. His performance felt raw. Maybe even a little awkward. But it was never forced. <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/arts-culture-and-lifestyle/nadhir-nasar-is-just-getting-started">And over time, something changed &mdash; or rather, refined itself.</a> The same actor began showing up in dramas with a kind of ease that felt unnervingly real &mdash; like the characters he played could be someone you know, someone you might&rsquo;ve passed on the street. &ldquo;Time teaches you,&rdquo; Shukri says. &ldquo;At the start, I was just mimicking other actors. I thought that was the way. But it never felt right. It was like I was playing someone else playing a role.&rdquo; That realisation sparked a quiet revolution in his craft. &ldquo;So I took a step back. I stopped copying. I started studying. Not just lines &mdash; but what they meant. Every beat, every word. I had to feel it before I could&nbsp;be&nbsp;it.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s not a technical actor, he admits. No mechanical precision or theatrical tricks. What drives him is instinct &mdash; tethered to a deep understanding of the script&rsquo;s emotional pulse. And when it clicks, it shows.

"It&rsquo;s not about chasing perfection. It&rsquo;s about being anchored in what matters." - Shukri Yahaya

Challenge, for Shukri Yahaya, isn&rsquo;t just part of the job &mdash; it&rsquo;s the point. And stepping into the role of Fadlan in&nbsp;Blood Brothers: Bara Naga&nbsp;might just be the boldest creative swing he&rsquo;s taken yet. He was given references, of course &mdash; film clips, character notes, the usual checklist of cues. &ldquo;I studied them,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Broke them down, tried to understand the intentions behind each. But the deeper I got into it, the more it felt off. Fadlan didn&rsquo;t belong in any of those templates.&rdquo; So, he did something rare in a tightly choreographed industry: he tore up the brief and trusted his gut. &ldquo;I stepped back and rebuilt Fadlan from my own point of view. It was risky, yeah &mdash; I knew I was going against the formula. But I didn&rsquo;t want him to feel like a recycled archetype. I wanted him to feel lived-in, real. Someone whose choices made sense because they came from a place of truth, not mimicry.&rdquo; And it paid off &mdash; not just on screen, but within. Because none of this, Shukri says, happens without growth. The kind that keeps you restless in your comfort zone. The kind that nudges you toward the edge and dares you to leap.

&ldquo;To me, growth is not playing it safe,&rdquo; he says plainly. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m a lot more intentional now &mdash; with everything. Whether it&rsquo;s work or life, I&rsquo;m more conscious of my choices and their ripple effects. I&rsquo;ve learnt what&rsquo;s good for me. But more importantly, I&rsquo;ve learnt what&rsquo;s good for the people around me. That&rsquo;s the real shift &mdash; it&rsquo;s not about chasing perfection. It&rsquo;s about being anchored in what matters.&rdquo;
Growth isn&rsquo;t just personal &mdash; it&rsquo;s pulsing through the local film and creative scene. You can feel it in the frame. The visuals are sharper, the stories bolder. Production quality is up, and the ideas? They're finally breathing. We're no longer afraid to take risks. We're experimenting, pushing past safe zones, reaching for something that feels new. That shift alone says everything.
Of course, the terrain isn&rsquo;t perfectly smooth. The industry still grapples with creative restrictions and cultural sensitivities. But despite the hurdles, filmmakers are finding ways to make it work &mdash; to say something meaningful, and say it loud. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s exciting,&rdquo; says Shukri. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re evolving. Sure, there are parts of the industry still caught in a loop &mdash; same ideas, same execution. And there&rsquo;s nothing wrong with that, necessarily. But I believe creativity has to move with time. What we make should reflect who we are&nbsp;now &mdash; culturally, socially, politically.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s not calling for an overnight revolution. No illusions about reaching Hollywood speeds. &ldquo;But if we keep moving forward &mdash; like some of our neighbouring countries have&mdash;project by project, step by step, I think we&rsquo;re on the right track,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And honestly? That&rsquo;s good enough for now.&rdquo;

Then comes the curveball: What&rsquo;s the one question he wishes people would ask him?
Shukri pauses. Thoughtful to a fault, his emotions flash across his face before the words even form. Then he answers: &ldquo;For a long time, I used to wonder &mdash; why didn&rsquo;t you see yourself acting in films?&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s rhetorical, but it hits. &ldquo;Because if everyone&rsquo;s chasing movies, then who&rsquo;s left to carry the drama series?&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;People see films as the crown jewel of the industry &mdash; and I get that. They&rsquo;re powerful. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean dramas are any less important.&rdquo;
He makes a case not often heard: that drama series offer something cinema can&rsquo;t. &ldquo;They reach people in a sustained way. They build emotional weight over time. That kind of storytelling deserves its own recognition. I wasn&rsquo;t avoiding film&mdash;I just believed in the space I was already in. Drama series shaped me. They shaped a lot of us. And they&rsquo;re just as vital to the creative ecosystem as anything on the big screen.&rdquo;

CREDITS: Creative Direction, Styling &amp; Words Syazil Abd Rahim Photography Her Be / Rare Haus Studio Styling Assistant Fekar Khairul Photography Assistant Tham All shoes <a href="https://www.larrieshoes.com">Larrie</a>

Digital Cover: Everything is romantic with Shukri Yahaya ft. Larrie

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