FIRST TIME EVER: Mani Ratnam's multi-starrer Ponniyin Selvan gets popular villain!

Ace director Mani Ratnam had kicked off filming on the magnum opus, Ponniyin Selvan, last week after much anticipation among fans for several years. As known already, the six-time National Award-winning director had expressed his desire on several occasions to adapt acclaimed Tamil writer Kalki Krishnamurthy’s epic novel, Ponniyin Selvan, onto the film medium, with filming currently taking place in various locations across Thailand.

The upcoming historical film includes a multi-star cast with more new names coming on board and the latest among the lot being popular Tamil actor, Riyaz Khan, who will be seen in a Mani Ratnam venture for the first time ever in his career. Having played villain roles in various films like Rajinikanth’s Baba, Vijayakanth’s Ramana, Prashanth’s Winner, including making notable appearances in Suriya's Ghajini, Masss and last year’s Bhaskar Oru Rascal, it is unknown what part Riyaz Khan will have in Ponniyin Selvan, who has been keeping his fans informed by posting pictures of himself on his Facebook page. 

As said earlier, Ponniyin Selvan includes ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Vikram Prabhu, Prabhu, Sarath Kumar, Rahman, Jayaram, Kishore, Ashwin Kakamanu, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha, Aishwarya Lekshmi forming the massive star cast followed by Academy Award-winning composer A. R. Rahman for the music under the joint production of Lyca Productions and Mani Ratnam’s Madras Talkies banners with Siva Ananth serving as the executive producer.  

Ponniyn Selvan’s first schedule in Thailand, which kicked off on December 10, is expected to carry forward for a period of nearly 40 days well into January 2020 with Ravi Varman handling cinematography, editing by Sreekar Prasad, production design by Thotta Tharani and Wasiq Khan, Sham Kaushal for the stunts, choreography by Brindha, Eka Lakhani for costume design, Vikram Gaikwad as the make-up artist, dialogues by Jeyamohan and a screenplay jointly written by Mani Ratnam and Elango Kumaravel.