Ponniyin Selvan (upcoming film)

Ponniyin Selvan (transl. The son of the Ponni) is an upcoming Indian Tamil-language historical drama film written and directed by Mani Ratnam and produced by Lyca Productions and Madras Talkies. It is an adaptation of Kalki Krishnamurthy's historical period based fictional novel of the same name.

Ponniyin Selvan
Poster
Directed byMani Ratnam
Produced byMani Ratnam
Suhasini Maniratnam
Allirajah Subaskaran
Written byMani Ratnam
Elango Kumaravel
B. Jeyamohan (Dialogues)[1]
Based onPonniyin Selvan
by Kalki Krishnamurthy
Starring
Music byA.R. Rahman
CinematographyRavi Varman
Edited byA. Sreekar Prasad
Production
company
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Cast

Production

Development

In 1958, M. G. Ramachandran announced Ponniyin Selvan, a film adaptation of Kalki Krishnamurthy's historical novel of the same name. Ramachandran bought the film rights to the novel for ₹10,000 (equivalent to ₹770,000 or US$11,000 in 2019), and would produce, direct and star in the adaptation, which would feature an ensemble cast including Vyjayanthimala Bali, Gemini Ganesan, Padmini, Savitri, B. Saroja Devi, M. N. Rajam, T. S. Balaiah, M. N. Nambiar, O. A. K. Thevar and Chittor V. Nagaiah. Before shooting could begin, Ramachandran met with an accident, and the wound took six months to heal; Ramachandran was unable to continue with the film despite renewing the rights four years later.[18][19]

In a January 1994 interview with Filmfare, Mani Ratnam stated that adapting the novel was one of his "dream projects" that he had hoped to work on during his career. Ratnam revealed that he worked on a first draft of the film alongside actor-director Kamal Haasan, who had bought the rights of the novel, but the pair shelved their plan as the project did not make financial sense at the time.[20][19]

In late 2010, Mani Ratnam renewed his interest in the project and worked alongside writer Jeyamohan to finalise the script for the film adaptation of Ponniyin Selvan. Expected to be made in the Tamil and Telugu languages at a cost of ₹100 crore, Mani Ratnam planned to produce the film himself initially, with the intention of teaming up with a bigger production house later on in the film-making process.[21] Technicians including composer A. R. Rahman, cinematographer Santosh Sivan, editor A. Sreekar Prasad and art director Sabu Cyril were soon after attached to the project.

Mani Ratnam cast Vijay in the leading role of Arulmozhi Varman, who later becomes the Chola emperor Rajaraja I. After signing the film, Vijay called it a "privilege" and a "dream come true" to be working with Mani Ratnam for the first time.[22] Mahesh Babu was cast in another leading role in the project, and also expressed his delight at being selected by Mani Ratnam.[23] Arya also joined the project to play a third leading male role after the script was narrated to him.[24] Meanwhile, Sathyaraj was signed to play a supporting role in the film.[25] During the course of the casting process, Mani Ratnam had also considered other actors including Vikram, Suriya and Vishal but they eventually did not make the final cast.[26] For the leading female roles, the team finalised Anushka Shetty for a role and held discussions with Priyanka Chopra in regard to another character.[27][28]

Seven days before the scheduled start of the shoot, a photoshoot for the film was held in Chennai featuring Vijay and Mahesh Babu.[29] For the shoot, the team sought permission from the officials of Mysore Palace and Lalitha Mahal to film sequences. However, their requests were denied with palace officials keen to keep film crews away from the historic locations.[30] The film was later shelved before the start of the filming stage, as the expected cost of production escalated. Jeyamohan stated that the film did not materialise as the team struggled to find available locations to shoot the film. He revealed that temple officials in Tamil Nadu refused to allow the team to film scenes on the premises and that the expensive cost of producing replica sets meant that it would not be a viable solution.[31] After the project was revived in 2019, Elango Kumaravel co-wrote the screenplay for this version with Mani Ratnam.[32] Several actors from the film including Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, and Ashwin Kakumanu and are growing their hair long for their roles in the film.[33][34]

Filming

Principal photography began on 11 December 2019 at Thailand.[35][36] 1st schedule was wrapped up and 2nd schedule started on 03 February 2020 in Puducherry and it will go on through 6 days.[37]

Music
Ponniyin Selvan
Soundtrack album by
A.R. Rahman
StudioPanchathan Record Inn and AM Studios, Chennai, A.R. Studios Mumbai
GenreFeature film soundtrack
LanguageTamil
LabelSony Music India
ProducerA.R. Rahman

The film score and soundtrack are composed by A. R. Rahman. Singer Harini confirmed in an interview that she has rendered her voice for one of the songs in the film.[38]

References
  1. "Jeyamohan had penned the dialogues for Ponniyin Selvan". Sify. 28 December 2019.
  2. "BREAKING: Chiyaan Vikram confirms his part in Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan adaptation; Shooting to begin early next year". The New Indian Express.
  3. "Karthi's, Jayam Ravi's looks in Ponniyin Selvan out". Deccan Chronicle.
  4. "Karthi's, Jayam Ravi's looks in Ponniyin Selvan out". Deccan Chronicle.
  5. "Aishwarya Rai confirms being a part of Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan". The New Indian Express.
  6. "Living The Dream: Trisha Confirms That She Is Now A Part Of Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan!". JFW online.
  7. "Vikram Prabhu REVEALS he's in the process of body transformation for his role in Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan". Pinkvilla.
  8. "Aishwarya Lekshmi begins to shoot for Ponniyin Selvan". Times of India.
  9. "Sobhita Dhulipala joins the cast of Ponniyin Selvan". The New Indian Express.
  10. "I want to be part of something that has not been done before: Ashwin". The Times of India.
  11. "Jayaram's new look for Ponniyin Selvan!". Times of India.
  12. "Mani Ratnam's 'Ponniyin Selvan' full cast and crew revealed | Tamil Movie News – Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 14 December 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  13. "Riyaz Khan joins the cast of Mani's Ponniyin Selvan | Tamil Movie News – Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  14. "Malayalam actor Lal joins Ponniyin Selvan: I play an aged warrior in Mani Ratnam's film". India Today. 4 December 2019.
  15. "Mohan Raman Opted for Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan". m.timesofindia.com. 24 December 2019.
  16. "Arjun Chidambaram joins the cast of Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan". The New Indian Express. 19 December 2019.
  17. "Baby Sara to act in Maniratnam's Ponniyin Selvan". Thandora Times. 5 August 2020.
  18. Bali, Karan (14 March 2018). "Films Announced But Never Started: Ponniyin Selvan". Upperstall.com. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  19. Srivathsan, A. (19 October 2011). "Age hardly withers charm of Ponniyin Selvan". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  20. Mohammed, Khalid (January 1994). "Mani Matters". Filmfare. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  21. "'Ponniyin Selvan' to come alive on celluloid". The Hindu. 12 January 2011.
  22. "'˜I don't get intimidated by anyone'". Bangalore Mirror.
  23. "Mani Ratnam signs Mahesh Babu". Sify.
  24. "Arya signs Mani's Ponniyin Selvan". Sify.
  25. Rangarajan, Malathi (28 January 2012). "Character Call". The Hindu.
  26. "Anushka in Mani's next!". The Times of India.
  27. "Anushka is Ponniyin Selvan heroine". Sify.
  28. "Priyanka Chopra in Mani Ratnam's new film?". Sify.
  29. "I was supposed to do Ponniyin Selvan with Vijay:Mahesh Babu". Sify.
  30. "Mysore Palace kept out of reach of producers". The Times of India.
  31. Thursday, September 08, 2016 – 09:54 (8 September 2016). "Writer Jeyamohan reveals why Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan was shelved". The News Minute. Retrieved 15 March 2020.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  32. "Elango Kumaravel to co-write Mani Ratnam's 'Ponniyin Selvan' adaptation". The New Indian Express. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  33. Anupama Subramanian (24 September 2019). "Mani Ratnam asks PS heroes to grow their manes". Deccan Chronicle.
  34. "Ponniyin Selvan: Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Ashwin Kakumanu sweat it out in the BTS picture from Mani Ratnam's film". PINKVILLA.
  35. "Mani Ratnam to begin shooting Ponniyin Selvan in Thailand next month". India Today. 8 November 2019.
  36. "Mani Ratnam's 'Ponniyin Selvan' starts rolling in Thailand". The Times of India.
  37. "Mani Ratnam's 'Ponniyin Selvan' 2nd Schedule started in Puduchery". Pink Villa.
  38. Galatta Media [@galattadotcom] (29 December 2019). "National Award Winning Singer Harini Has Recorded A Song For The Film" (Tweet). Retrieved 3 January 2020 – via Twitter.
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