Mahesh Babu in Mani Ratnam's next!

Here comes breaking news! Telugu super star Mahesh Babu is all set to star in Mani Ratnam's next venture. The actor met Mani Ratnam in Chennai on Sunday and signed the project. "My dream is coming true finally. I will be working in a Mani Ratnam film. One of the happiest days of my life," Mahesh Babu tweeted.

Reportedly Mani Ratnam's next project will be based on Kalki Krishnamurthy's popular Tamil historical novel 'Ponniyin Selvan'. A historic fiction featuring mostly real historical characters and real historical incidents, Ponniyin Selvan narrates the story of Arulmozhivarman, later crowned as Raja Raja Chola, one of the greatest kings in Tamil history.

It is learned that the film is planned with a whopping budget of Rs. 200 crores. As per sources, Kalanidhi Maran of Sun Pictures, who earlier produced Enthiran (Robot) is likely to produce this high budget film. Noted Tamil writer Jayamohan will pen the dialogues.

Mani Ratnam is reportedly considering Tamil star Vikram as one of the leads. He is also trying to rope music maestro Ilayaraaja as music director.