The lead actors and actresses revealed that the director gives them a lot of space and a chance to explore their characters. Actress Aishwarya Rai said that Mani Ratnam’s film has always been so different and iconic. The actress revealed that while shooting for the film, no one even knew when the shot was complete and it has been the same since her first film ‘Iruvar’ in Tamil with Mani Ratnam. “We will be figuring out how to do the scene and after completing the shot, we will still be thinking what to do and by the time we wonder if it was done right, he will have already moved to the next scene. We will look around and even will ask DOP Ravi Varman if it’s done,” Aishwarya said.
Now, Karthi has opened up and said that he is actually scared of Director Mani Ratnam. For those who don’t know, Karthi used to work as Mani Ratnam’s Assistant and has also done a small uncredited role in Aayutha Ezhuthu. Now, in an interview Karthi opened up, “I’m a little less scared now. Less scared, but still scared. With this film, I think Mani sir actually opened up a lot, unlike when I was an AD. Even in 2017, he was very glued to what he was doing. But this time, he was chatting with us, he was cracking jokes, sometimes when we were on a boat, he was smiling – that’s very rare. He was pulling our legs; he was having fun. It didn’t feel like Mani sir actually. He was really enjoying in the sets.”
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.
The team announced that Ponniyin Selvan will be the first Tamil movie to be released in the IMAX format. This will ensure that the audience will have the larger-than-life experience of watching the film, just like the movie itself. While Ravi Varman is handling the camera for the film, Sreekhar Prasad is handling the edit and Thotta Tharani is designated for the Production Design of the film. The film is bankrolled by Lyca Productions and Madras Talkies. The music director for the movie is AR Rahman. PS-1 is slated for a worldwide release on September 30, 2022, in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.