Talk about the Cholas has been running wild as the movie Ponniyin Selvan is all set to release on September 30th. The movie revolves around the Chola empire and 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, which will be released in two parts. Starring Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Trisha, Aishwarya Rai, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Sarathkumar in lead roles, this is considered Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus. Jayam Ravi is said to play Arun Mozhi Varman, while Trisha plays his sister Kundavai. Karthi will be seen as Vanthiya Thevan, while Aishwarya Rai will be Nandini. Jayaram, Prakash Raj, Lal and Kishore will be playing prominent roles.

The team have now released an exclusive sneak peek on YouTube. The scene shows the Pandiya Aabathudhavigal led by Ravi Dasan (Kishore) taking an oath to make their young Pandiya Prince the next king, and kill Sundara Chola, Arunmozhi Varman and Aditha Karikalan. The 2-minute sneak peek also shows the setting of that scene, which is typically placed in a cave in the novel. Watch the scene here:

In a recent press meeting, Mani Ratnam was quoted as revealing that the second part of the film is all set to release precisely 9 months after the first part’s release. As the first part is all set to release on September 30, the second part will most likely be somewhere around June end or July beginning next year. Ponniyin Selvan is to be released in 2 parts, and the first part is releasing on September 30th.  The runtime of the film is apparently 2 hours and 50 minutes or 170 minutes, which is less than several large-scale movies. Probably, Mani Ratnam went for a short and sweet first half, in order to hook the audience with a longer and more detailed second part.