The recipient of six National Film Awards, Padma Shree Award-winning filmmaker Mani Ratnam is set to bring his epic historical fiction film magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan to cinemas soon.

Ponniyin Selvan is based on the novel of the same name written by Kalki Krishnamurthy, it explores the fictional early life of one of India’s greatest kings Raja Raj Chola first, who rules most of South India and the Indian Ocean between 985 common era to 1014 common era.

Mani Ratnam’s dream project…

Considering the fan cult following of the filmmaker novel, Mani Ratnam planned to adapt the novel earlier in 1990 and then in 2000, but it did not materialize at that time due to financial issues and filming locations.

And after two failed attempts, the legendary director in 2019 with Lyca Productions set out to direct this upcoming masterpiece which in Ratnam’s eyes is his dream project.

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Budget and release date

The budget of Ponniyin Selvan would be Rs 500 crores, this magnum opus will be released in cinemas in two parts. The filming of the first part was completed in September 2021 and its theatrical release is scheduled for September 30, 2022.

The release date has been announced by the makers with the prominent information that the release in all five Indian languages ​​Tamil along with its Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada dubbed versions.

We wish our President Allirajah Subaskaran a very happy birthday! The Golden Era hits the big screen on September 30! 🗡#PS1 #PS1FirstLooks @MadrasTalkies_ pic.twitter.com/jJ03A59vcm

— Lyca Productions (@LycaProductions) March 2, 2022

Star Cast of Ponniyin Selvan Part 1

Pooniyin Selvan has on board a set of Indian movie stars:

• Kollywood star Chiyaan Vikram stars as Arulmozhivaraman’s older brother as Aditya Karikalan.
• Mohan Ravi playing the lead role of Ponniyin Selvan (Arulmozhivarman),
• Karti (Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan),
• Hindi film actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will portray Queen Nandini of Pazhuvoor,
• Jayaram Subramaniam (Azhawarkadiyan Nambi), Trisha (Kundavai Pirattiyar), Sobhita Dhulipala (Vaanathi),
• Aishwarya Lekshmi (Poonguzhali), Vikram Prabhu (Parthibendra Pallavan), Ashwin Kakumanu (Senthan Amudhan),
• R. Sarathkumar (Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar), R. Prathiban (Chinna Pazhuvettaraiyar),
• Prabhu Ganesan (Perya Vellar Boothi ​​Vikramakesari),
• Prakash Raj will play Sundara Chola (Parantaka Chola second),
• Other Actors Rahman, Aswin Rao, Nizhalgal Ravi, Lal, Vidya Subramanian, Jayachitra, Nassar,
• Kishore plays the antagonist role Ponniyin Selvan,
• Riyaz Khan, Vinay Kumar, Mohan Raman, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan,
• Master Raghavan (Pandya Prince),
• Makarand Deshpande, Balaji Sakthivel, Vijay Yesudas, Arjun Chidambaram, Babu Antony and Amzath Khan will play pivotal roles.

Ponniyin Selvan translates to Son of Ponni in Tamil, it is the ancient name of the Kaveri River. Rajaraja the Great was 5 years old when his mother Kaveri herself saved him from drowning in the river. This is when he obtained the title of Son of Kaveri or Ponniyin Selvan.

Creators

Ponniyin Selvan part 1 is supported by Allirajah Subhaskaran with Mani under the banner of Lyca Production in association with Madras Talkies.

It was Lyca Production who decided to finance Mani Ratnam’s dream project in 2019, the screenplay is written by Mani Ratnam and Elango Kumaravel, and Dialogues by B.Jeyamohan whose notable works include 2.0, Sarkar, and he also writes Kamal Haasan’s dialogue features the highly publicized vigilante action flick Indian 2.

Technical team

On the technical side, Ravi Varman launches the camera, A. Sreekar Prasad (8 National Film Awards) is on board for the editing, and the music is given by winner Padma Bhusan AR Rahman (6 national films, 2 Oscar, 2 Grammy , a Golden Globe Award).