Mani Ratnam’s dream project ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ is all set to release on September 30. Before, you watch the movie, we provide you with some interesting and unknown facts about Mani sir’s epic. Take a look
1. The movie is adapted from the epic Tamil Novel Ponniyin Selvan’. The author Kalki took three and half years to complete the novel, he also visited Srilanka three times for gathering information about the novel.
2. Ponniyin Selvan was first published between 1950 and 1954 in the Tamil weekly magazine. Kalki and released in book form in 1955.
3. M.G. Ramachandran and Kamal Hassan, Bharathi all desired to make this novel into a movie but gave up perhaps due to budgetary or logistical constraints.
4. This is Mani Ratnam’s dream project, from 1994 he has been dreaming to picture this movie. Back in those days, the budget was estimated above 100 Crores. No one came forward to bankroll this project due to the high budget. Finally, in 2019, he started the film and the film ended at a budget of Rs. 500 crores.
5. The story takes place in the 10th century, under Chola’s rule. It revolves around the legendary King RajRaja Cholan and The commander of the Cholan army Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan. The biggest mystery in the actual story was the mysterious death of King Rajraja Cholan’s brother Adithya Karikalan.
6. There was a lot of casting changes for the movie, Mani Ratnam thought of these actors – Thalapathy Vijay, Mahesh Babu, Anushka Shetty, Nayanthara, Keerthy Suresh, and Vijay Sethupathi for certain roles.
7. In 1958, MG Ramachandran, paid Rs. 10,000 for the rights and decided to make the movie Ponniyin Selvan, but unfortunately, he met with an accident, and the film was dropped.
8. This is the first Hero Karthi has worked with the same director twice. Before, he worked with Mani Ratnam in Kaatru Veliyidai (2017)
9. The soundtrack has 12 songs, and Mani & Rahman had flown to Bali to write songs for the film. And the great Rahman stated that Ponniyin Selvan is one of the most difficult films he has ever worked on.
10. Rajinikanth wanted to be in the film Ponniyin Selvan, as he is a big fan of the novel, but Mani Ratnam respectfully rejected him saying, ‘If I cast you in the role of Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar, your fans will scold me.’
