Yusuf Amir

Yusuf Amir (Arabic: يوسف امير) is a character mentioned in Grand Theft Auto IV and first appears in The Ballad of Gay Tony. He is voiced by British-Iranian comedian Omid Djalili.

Background and Personality
Yusuf Amir was born in 1977 (making him 31 in the game) 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 likely born wealthy, as he claims to have had a golden train set as a child.

In 2008, during Grand Theft Auto IV, he moved from Dubai to Liberty City to further develop luxury properties. His first project's construction site was locked down by Messina crime 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 almost like Roman Bellic.

Lifestyle
Despite his born-rich billionaire status and bad boy lifestyle, Yusuf does not seem to be famous outside of his notoreity in the real estate business. His developments in the Persian Gulf include the "Hanging Gardens of Amir", an apartment complex suspended by balloons, and an underwater Liberty City themed hotel and casino (which Luis must steal a subway car to use as an underwater tram for viewing the coral reef). In Liberty City he plans to build sixty skyscrapers (all luxury condos), and also discusses with Luis building a zoo with "sabre-toothed dodos and shit, women in gold cages, you name it!". The first of these is the "Imperial Amir Towers", which will include many gold fixtures and an in-house plastic surgeon (the site is in Castle Gardens, where the union workers were killed). It is meant to be taller than Rotterdam Tower, and local groups criticized that it will "ruin the skyline of Castle Gardens".

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 enjoys using gangster lingo, including "nigga" to Luis' irritation. Despite Luis' request to stop using this particular term, Yusuf continues to use it in his vocabulary.
 * 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 his flies a Gold version.
 * It is assumed he takes cocaine as seen in cutscenes from the missions Sexy Time and Caught with your Pants Down.
 * 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.
 * Yusuf, in some way, is quite similar to Roman Bellic. Especially his childish attitude

Mission appearances

 * The Ballad of Gay Tony
 * Chinese Takeout
 * Sexy Time (Boss)
 * For the Man Who Has Everything (Boss)
 * Caught with your Pants Down (Boss)
 * High Dive (Boss)
 * Departure Time (Support)

External Link

 * Meet Yusuf Amir in The Ballad of Gay Tony

Yusuf Amir