Vijay Yesudas on being cut from Ponniyin Selvan: ‘I was replaced in Rowdy Rathore too by someone more popular’

Though Malayalam singer Vijay Yesudas is already one of the most sought-after playback artistes in South cinema, his acting career is yet to take off. In a recent event, Vijay revealed that he was part of Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan 1, which would have given him a huge visibility considering the success the film was.

Terming it an “astounding experience”, he said that he was approached for the film by filmmaker Dhana, who was the associate director of PS1 and had helmed Vijay’s Tamil movie Padaiveeran. “He had casually mentioned that there was this character with negative shades,” said the singer, at the India Today South Conclave 2023.

Also read: Ponniyin Selvan 2 star Jayaram: I don’t think for any other director, the entire team would have been on the same page 

The singer explained that he got a call much later from Dhana saying that he had suggested his name to Mani Ratnam. Vijay said he went to Rajahmundry the next day, on the sets of the movie, and was advised to shave his head for the character, which he did. “The next morning, I did one scene and… then a month later, they called me to Hyderabad for the next few days of shooting. I had to ride a horse,” he said, adding that it was a great experience working with Vikram and being directed by Mani Ratnam.

However, none of these scenes made it to the final cut, said Vijay. “Dhana informed me later,” he said. Vijay said he wasn’t disappointed because he had faced such situations before too. “In Hindi, I had sung a track in Rowdy Rathore. When I was recording for a song in Chennai for (AR) Rahman sir, I got a call from Sanjay Leela Bhansali productions saying that my voice was replaced by someone more popular. I was like, ‘it was expected’. It happened to me in Tamil too,” he said.

Also read: Ponniyin Selvan 2 out on OTT! Here's where you can watch Mani Ratnam's epic historical drama on OTT 

The Malayalam singer further explained that the director had all the right to remove the scenes he didn’t want. “When I watched the film, I knew what my character was and there were a lot of such characters in the movie. So, one more episode of that, I as a viewer would have also found it to be a bit boring,” he said.

Both Ponniyin Selvan: I and II are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Meanwhile, Vijay is next set for the release of his horror-thriller titled Salmon.