Yusuf Amir

Yusuf Amir is a character in The Ballad of Gay Tony. He is voiced by British-Iranian comedian Omid Djalili.

Background and Personality
Yusuf Amir was born in Dubai, UAE to Abdul Amir, an extremely wealthy real estate developer. Throughout his life he seeks to impress his father, a highly conservative businessman who frowns upon Yusuf's life as "a reckless orgy of sex, drugs and spending". He was born wealthy, as he claims to have had a golden train set as a child.

At somepoint he moved from Dubai to Liberty City to further develop luxury properties. His first project's construction site was locked down by Messina Family construction unions, until Playboy X hired Niko Bellic to kill them all hoping to gain favor with Yusuf. He would not meet with Playboy, instead temporarily shutting down the site and building a memorial for the workers.

In The Ballad of Gay Tony, Yusuf finally becomes a major supporting character. He wants to franchise Gay Tony's nightclub Maisonette 9, and hires Prince's bodyguard Luis Lopez as a mercenary. He takes a very fast shining to Luis in particular, seeking to impress him with his possessions and sometimes white lies (for example, in High Dive he claims that 1 week ago he was exhausted from test driving "sexy cars" and for 2 weeks, flew to Vice City with prostitutes). After only meeting Luis twice in Sexy Time, he is quick to say that they are like "brothers". Towards the end of the game, he gives Luis his gold-plated Super Drop Diamond and brings his machine gun helicopter to aid Luis in a large gunfight, very rare and profound of his otherwise selfish nature.

Yusuf is used as a plot device to symbolize extreme wealth, materialism and the temptation for Tony and Luis to sell out their beliefs (especially towards the ending). Unlike Ray Bulgarin, whose character shares some of these themes, Yusuf is a good guy in that he is clearly out to help Tony and Luis, as well as a more lighthearted comic relief.

Lifestyle
Yusuf is somewhat well-known for his lavish, excessive real estate developments. Despite being an ideal candidate for I'm Rich, he does not seem to be famous outside circles of architecture or real estate buffs. His developments include:
 * Persian Gulf: "Hanging Gardens of Amir", an apartment complex suspended by hot air balloons.
 * Dubai, UAE: Yusuf "made headlines around the world" when he built the world's tallest building in 2005, only to tear it down the following day just to prove he could. The real world's tallest building, Burj Dubai, cost $1.5 billion.


 * Qatar, Persian Gulf: An 11-star underwater hotel and casino. It is meant to be Liberty City-themed, in the shape of a tiger, and contain a genuine Liberty City subway train to give tours of a delicate coral reef. It is mainly a parody of Hydropolis, a planned $500 million underwater resort near Dubai that was unfortunately cancelled. It may have also been inspired by Posiedon in Fiji or Jules' in Florida.
 * Outer Space: He is seriously considering several zero-gravity developments in space, much like the real-life Galactic Suite project. He also says he wants a Maisonette 9 on the moon, if allowed to franchise the clubs.
 * Liberty City, USA: Yusuf plans to build sixty luxury condo towers in Algonquin. He also discusses building a zoo alongside Luis with "sabre-toothed dodos and shit, women in gold cages, you name it!".


 * Castle Gardens, Liberty City, USA: Yusuf's first project in the US, called the "Imperial Amir Towers". It will feature mostly solid gold and jewel-encrusted features, a floor-to-ceiling aquarium in the lobby, a dolphin pool with glory holes, and a Roman-style vomitorium (a common feature in stadiums that isn't directly associated with vomiting). Their services will include 24-hour plastic surgeons, dwarf bellhops, all furniture thrown out and replaced daily (including "chaise lounges with seal skin coverings moisteurized daily by the moistness of Icelandic virgins"). Air is imported from the Himilayas. It is meant to be taller than Rotterdam Tower. It was quickly surrounded by controversy, after local groups criticized that it will "ruin the skyline of Castle Gardens" and it became the site of a union strike massacre.

Yusuf's own residence is an ultra-luxury two story penthouse in Middle Park East, filled with his collection of gold-plated items (a cell phone, an Uzi and a scale model of Liberty City, among others), arcade machines and a big screen television (showing the end credits of GTA IV), and a unique flame painted Lycan (inaccessible to the player). He refers to a billion dollars as "chump change" when talking to a real estate businessman, also telling Luis in Caught with your Pants Down "If only [my father] gave me a few billion I could really call my own, then maybe I would grow up". In a conversation with his father during High Dive, he refers to $10 million as "maybe a little bit too much to spend in a month, but it was necessary!".

Trivia

 * Leslie Mitchell, a Weazel News reporter, claims Yusuf Amir is a personal friend of his, and as a result, does not restraint himself in defending Yusuf's construction project in Castle Gardens, calling groups who are not in favor of Yusuf's project as "leftist loonies" who are arresting property development in the city.
 * Yusuf likes the song "Arab Money," and is seen in cutscenes playing the song and dancing to it. He also sings the song in the end cutscene of For the Man Who Has Everything.
 * Yusuf is an experienced helicopter pilot, as seen in Departure Time.
 * In his pre-release trailer, during scenes from the mission Departure Time, he's seen flying in a black Buzzard. In the final version of the game the Buzzard is already gold at this point.
 * A gold plated Hexer is found outside his apartment in TBOGT Multiplayer, it is assumed he owns it.
 * In a photo attached to a newspaper article about Yusuf, he is pictured beside a black Infernus with a black Maverick helicopter in the background. This picture is taken outside a house in Northern Alderney suggesting either that he also owns this house in addition to his penthouse apartment or that Rockstar had originally planned to have him live there.
 * The definition of Amir in Arabic is prince or commander.
 * In Yusuf's mission cutscenes, on his TV, you can see either Grand Theft Auto IV end credits or "The History of Liberty" end credits.
 * In GTA IV, PlayboyX describes Yusuf as a serious and overworked man, but in TBOGT he is relaxed and free.
 * In the ending cutscene from his trailer, it can clearly be seen that his construction helmet is gold.
 * Yusuf likes to use the 'n-word' when greeting Luis, much to his discomfort.

Mission appearances

 * The Ballad of Gay Tony
 * Chinese Takeout
 * Sexy Time (Boss)
 * High Dive (Boss)
 * Caught with your Pants Down (Boss)
 * For the Man Who Has Everything (Boss)
 * Not So Fast (Voice)
 * In the Crosshairs (Post-mission phone call)
 * Departure Time

External Link

 * Meet Yusuf Amir in The Ballad of Gay Tony

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