'Golden era comes to life' with Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan, part one to be out in 2022

Finally, a new update on Mani Ratnam's upcoming directorial Ponniyin Selvan has been dropped. The makers have announced that the film is set to be a two-part series and the first part will be out in 2020. Ponniyin Selvan is based on the book of the same name penned by Kalki. The announcement was made with a terrific poster featuring a fierce-looking shield and a sword struck by it. 

While sharing the poster, the team of Ponniyin Selvan wrote on their social media pages, "The golden era comes to life! #PonniyinSelvan #PS1 #ManiRatnam @madrastalkies."

The cast of the magnum opus includes Aishwarya Lekshmi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Ashwin Kakumanu, Jayam Ravi, Jayaram, Karthi, Kishore, Lal, Prabhu, Sarath Kumar, Trisha, Vikram, Vikram Prabhu and others.

The screenplay for Ponniyin Selvan is penned by Jeyamohan, while the music is composed by AR Rahman. The cinematography for the magnum opus is by S Ravi Varman whereas Thota Tharani is roped in as the art director. Akkineni Sreekar Prasad is the editor of the epic period drama which is produced by Lyca Productions and Madras Talkies. The upcoming film is presented by Subaskaran.

Earlier during an Instagram live session held in 2020, Mani had confirmed that the film will be out in two parts. 

Meanwhile, there have been reports making the rounds that Aishwarya is set to play a dual role in the film. The actor had confirmed being a part of the film during her appearance at the Cannes Film Festival a couple of years back.

The actor had said, "Mani (Ratnam) hasn’t formally announced it yet, but the word is out, so I will commit to the fact that yes, I am working with him. I won't say I agreed...I will always be more than thrilled, overwhelmed, humbled and happy to work with my guru, Mani. So yeah, that’s happening."