Ponniyin Selvan: Mani Ratnam Reveals Why He Didn’t Make It A Web Series!

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 to be Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus. Jayam Ravi is said to play Arun Mozhi Varman, while Trisha is said to play 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.

In the recently held press meet in Trivandrum, director Mani Ratnam finally revealed why he chose to make Ponniyin Selvan a two-part film, instead of web series. “The first time I read Ponniyin Selvan, I must’ve just finished school. And when I read it, I looked at it as a big screen thing. Everything looked big to me – the adventure, the horses, the war, the women, the men – everything appealed to you as something which is so graphic, so big. It has always been a film for me. I never looked at the option of it being a web series,” said the veteran filmmaker. “I’m sure that it can be done and I’m sure that somebody will do it at some point. Maybe you’ll do it. But to me, it was meant for theatres, meant for cinema. It has everything that we celebrate in cinema,” concluded Mani Ratnam.

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 final work of the film is currently going on, and the director has reportedly made a final copy of the film. 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.