Ponniyin Selvan: Mani Ratnam thanks Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor for their contribution to epic period drama

The Ponniyin Selvan team, including the actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Chiyaan Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Trisha, and Sobhita Dhulipala, and the film's director Mani Ratnam, are currently on a promotional spree for their upcoming epic period drama and are touring multiple Indian cities for the same.

The team held a press conference in Mumbai on Saturday, September 24, where the National Award-winning director revealed that Ajay Devgn is a part of Ponniyin Selvan as the narrator in the film's Hindi version. The film, originally made in Tamil, will also be released in dubbed versions in Tamil, Malayam, Kannada, and Telugu.

Mani Ratnam said, "I have two more people to thank from the Hindi film industry, one is Anil Kapoor, it was his voice on the trailer and one more is Ajay Devgn, it will be his voice on the main film", as per an indianexpress.com report. Ajay had earlier narrated the 2011 action-comedy film Yamla Pagla Deewana starring the three Deols namely Dharmendra, Sunny, and Bobby.

The much-anticipated film takes its inspiration from real historical events and characters from the Chola empire. The two-part film series, whose first part releases this Friday, is based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s novel Ponniyin Selvan, considered one of the finest pieces of work in Tamil literature, released in five parts in 1955.

When Mani was asked how he has adapted the novel and if has had made certain changes in the film from the novel, the filmmaker added, "The book is a historical fiction. There are a lot of characters which are real, which existed and which are recorded in history. There are some characters that Kalki had written which are fictional and I think the way he had blended the two is fascinating and that is what we have tried to capture in the movie."

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Backed by Ratnam’s banner Madras Talkies and Allirajah Subaskaran’s Lyca Productions, Ponniyin Selvan: I is set to hit theatres on September 30 and will clash with Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan starrer Vikram Vedha, the official Hindi remake of the 2017 Tamil film of the same name.