Film Ponniyin Selvan (PS1)

Press Conference

- Seema Dhawan

The period historical drama has been garnering praises from all across. An adaptation of classic Tamil novel ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ by Kalki (writer, poet and journalist Ramaswamy Krishnamurthy), the epic action drama is, unlike the pure fantasy stories of Game of Thrones or Baahubali, based on history, centred on the early days of Arulmozhivarman, a powerful Indian king who went on to become Rajaraja Chola I of the Chola empire.

The stellar cast includes Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Trisha, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Prakash Raj and Sobhita Dhulipala, among others. The star cast of the film along with the filmmaker Mani Ratnam attended a press conference in Delhi, shared their experience of working together and hard work that went into the making of the film while giving insights about the film. Trisha stars as the Chola princess Kundavai, Dhulipala as princess Vaanathi, and Lekshmi as a simple boat woman. This is Aishwarya’s fourth collaboration with Mani Ratnam,( having worked together earlier on Iruvar, Raavan and Guru. She played a dual role, as the queen Nandini, who is on a mission to seek vengeance, as well as Mandakini Devi, Nandini’s mute mother).

While addressing the Media, Mani Ratnam talked about his journey, “I remember I read this book when I was in school. It was very inspiring, it was a rage when published and since then it has been the bestselling book in Tamil Nadu.” He attempted to make the film twice in the past, in 1994 and then in 2011, and failed. Production was also delayed after the first schedule was filmed in early 2020 and the pandemic struck soon after.