EXCLUSIVE! Mani Ratnam, Karthi, Aishwarya Rai at Press Conference, director talks about Ponniyin Selvan: 1

Mani
Ratnam’s
ambitious
period
drama

Ponniyin
Selvan
1
(PS:1)
is
set
to
open
in
cinemas
on
September
30.
The
star
cast
of
the
film
along
with
the
filmmaker
and
the
music
maestro
AR
Rehman
attended
a
press
conference
in
Mumbai
on
September
24.
Speaking
at
the
event,
the
director
spoke
about
adapting
the
film
from
Kalki
Krishnamurthy’s
1955
novel

Ponniyin
Selvan
and
called
it
a
difficult
process.

Kalki’s
novel
is
in
5
volumes.
So
when
asked
about
how
easy
or
difficult
it
was
to
pick
up
the
important
episodes
from
the
book
and
present
the
story
in
2
films,
Mani
Ratnam
told

FilmiBeat
that,
“It
was
difficult,
but
I
am
paid
to
do
that
(smiles).
That’s
my
job
to
be
able
to
extract
two
films
out
of
this.
The
book
is
really
extensive
and
it
has
got
so
many
characters,
so
much
details,
there
is
so
much
history
written
in
it
and
a
lot
of
research
went
into
the
book.
It
was
like
a
platter
for
me,
so
we
could
put
it
together
in
a
cogent
way.
And
because
we
are
doing
a
5-part-book
of
nearly
2000
pages,
into
2
films,
there
were
some
parts
that
had
to
be
crunched,
had
to
be
brought
together
and
told
in
a
cogent
fashion
that
people
will
be
able
to
follow.
So,
this
was
a
task
which
I
really
enjoyed.”

PS:1
is
Mani
Ratnam’s
dream
project.
He
tried
to
adapt
the
novel
in
the
mid-1990s
and
early-2010s,
but
had
to
shelve
due
to
issues
with
the
potential
budget
for
the
film.
In
2019,
however
Mani
Ratnam
officially
restarted
the
production.

Magnum
opus

Ponniyin
Selvan
stellar
cast
is
headlined
by
Chiyaan
Vikram,
Aishwarya
Rai
Bachchan,
Karthi,
Jayam
Ravi,
Trisha,
Sobhita
Dhulipala,
Aishwarya
Lekshmi,
Lal,
among
others.
Its
soundtrack
has
been
composed
by
AR
Rahman.