Talk about the Cholas has been running wild ever since the release of the movie Ponniyin Selvan on September 30th. The movie revolves around the Chola empire and is mostly about Ponniyin Selvan, also known as Raja Raja Chozhan or Arunmozhi Varman. Ponniyin Selvan is originally a Tamil novel based on the life of Raja Raja Chola, written by Kalki. While there have been several attempts in the past to make it a film, Mani Ratnam has now started this project, and the second part is expected to release next year. Starring Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Trisha, Aishwarya Rai, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Sarathkumar in lead roles, this is considered to be Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus. Jayam Ravi played Arun Mozhi Varman, while Trisha played his sister Kundavai. Karthi was seen as Vanthiya Thevan, while Aishwarya Rai performed the role of Nandini. Jayaram, Prakash Raj, Lal, and Kishore played prominent roles.

Ponniyin Selvan 1 was recently released on Amazon Prime for all those who have not yet watched the film in theatres. Now, the release date of Ponniyin Selvan 2 has also been announced. In a recent interview with a media house, one of the distributors of the film, actor-politician Udayanidhi Stalin revealed the release date of the film. He apparently said that the movie is slated to release on April 20, 2023. “Mani sir has almost finished the shooting of the film. There are only about two days of shoot left. We will release on April 20,” Udhayanidhi said.

The runtime of the first film was 2 hours and 50 minutes or 170 minutes, which is less than several large-scale movies. Mani Ratnam went for a short and sweet first half, in order to hook the audience with a longer and more detailed second part. The budget of the film is said to be a whopping Rs 500 crore. Reports suggest that both the parts of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ have been sold on a whole to a popular OTT platform for an amount of Rs 125 crores. The OTT platform is none other than Amazon Prime Video. So those of you who didn’t witness the grandeur in the theatre, can relax and watch the film on your home screen.

‘Ponniyin Selvan 1’ has reportedly grossed over Rs 480 crores worldwide, and the film is expected to surpass the 500 crore mark shortly. The historical drama is already the highest-grossing Tamil film in Tamil Nadu, the USA, and several other locations. While Ravi Varman handled the camera for the film, Sreekhar Prasad did the editing and Thotta Tharani was designated for the Production Design of the film. The film was bankrolled by Lyca Productions and Madras Talkies. The music director for the movie was AR Rahman.