Is Ponniyin Selvan, the Tamil Game of Thrones? Check out Mani Ratnam's tongue-in-cheek response

Since the release of the Ponniyin Selvan trailer, comparisons between the Mani Ratnam movie and Game of Thrones have been made. The popular series, based on George RR Martin’s novels, is about the quest to claim the Iron Throne. But it also stands for complicated political gambits, scheming and the backstabbing nature of people and finding love in troubled times. Ponniyin Selvan-1 too discusses all of these.

However, Mani Ratnam refuses to acknowledge Ponniyin Selvan-1 as the Tamil adaptation of Game of Thrones while speaking with Film Companion.

He had a fantastic reply in place of that. “I think Game of Thrones is the English version of Ponniyin Selvan-1.”

Featuring Vikram, Karthi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi, Trisha, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sobhita Dhulipala, Prabhu, Sarathkumar, Vikram Prabhu, Prakash Raj, Rahman, and R Parthiban, the Ponniyin Selvan franchise, is based on the renowned five-volume novel by Kalki Krishnamurthy; which spans about 2200 pages.

Ponniyin Selvan was created during three years and will showcase the intriguing history of the Chola Dynasty.

On adapting the novel into the film, Mani Ratnam said, it can “easily be done as five or ten different films. But, with the budget that we had, we could only shoot for two.”

Even though Mani Ratnam is only releasing the first half on September 30, the second one has been shot.

Numerous adaptations of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana have been made, but not as many as the modern epics. People appreciate grandiose and historical tales as long as they are well-told, as seen by Baahubali's huge popularity.

Ponniyin Selvan was adapted into films on multiple occasions, all of which failed. In 1958, MG Ramachandran, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, was the one to make the initial announcement that he would film Ponniyin Selvan with an ensemble cast. However, it was unsuccessful. The Nayakan duo, Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan, were thinking of collaborating to fulfil their ambition of adapting the same in the early 2000s. But Mani Ratnam abandoned their passion project, only to bring it back in 2019 with a new cast.

As the project is already setting records, the hype was mirrored in the pre-booking data. According to a report from Pinkvilla, Ponniyin Selvan-1 sold 2.5 lakh tickets in Tamil Nadu on Monday for a total of Rs 4.50 crore.