Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan to resume shoot in October, next schedule in Sri Lanka: report

The shoot of filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s upcoming Tamil magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan will resume in October, as per an India Today report. After contemplating shooting the next schedule in Madhya Pradesh, the report adds that the veteran has zeroed in on Sri Lanka as the next location.

An official announcement regarding the film’s shoot will be made in the coming weeks. Apparently, the makers are waiting for permission from the concerned officials for the shoot before they can make any announcement.

Ponniyin Selvan could be the first big-budget Tamil film to resume shooting amid the pandemic. The film will be an adaptation of Kalki’s epic novel of the same name.

The title poster of Ponniyin Selvan was unveiled earlier this year in January. The film had gone on the floors in Thailand where a major portion of the first schedule was shot. The poster features a sword with a golden hilt and it bears the emblem of the Chola kingdom along with the words ‘Beginning of the Golden Era’. While it features the names of all the key crew members, there’s no mention of the lyricist.

A few months ago when reports emerged that Vairamuthu has been signed for Ponniyin Selvan, netizens took to Twitter to question Mani Ratnam’s decision to sign the veteran lyricist, who has been accused of sexual harassment by singer Chinmayi. While the makers and composer AR Ratnam are still silent over inclusion of Vairamuthu in the project, recent reports suggest that the award-winning lyricist is no longer part of the film.

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As per the poster, AR Rahman will compose music, Ravi Varman is the cinematographer, Sreekar Prasad is the editor, Thota Tharani has been roped in for production design and writer Jeyamohan, for dialogues.

Sharing credits for the screenplay along with Mani Ratnam is Kumaravel. Eka Lakhani will take care of costumes while Vikram Gaikwad is in charge of the make-up. Brinda has been roped in for choreography while Sham Kaushal will take care of action direction. The film is being jointly produced by Mani Ratnam and Lyca Productions. Siva Ananth is the film’s executive producer.

The cast so far includes Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Vikram Prabhu, Amitabh Bachchan, Mohan Babu and Aishwarya Rai, among others.

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