Actor Jayam Ravi, who plays prince Arulmozhi Varman in director Mani Ratnam's eagerly awaited magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan, says he has got goosebumps and has thanked director Mani Ratnam for the role.
Taking to Twitter soon after Lyca Productions and Madras Talkies tweeted his first look in the film as Ponniyin Selvan, Jayam Ravi, tweeting the picture on his timeline, wrote in Tamil, “The pride of Tamils, the history of Cholas, and in it as Arul Mozhi Varman. Goosebumps. Thank you Mani Ratnam sir. (sic)”
Earlier in the day, Lyca Productions and Madras Talkies, which are jointly producing the film, tweeted the first look poster of Jayam Ravi and said, “Hail the Visionary Prince, the Architect of Golden Era, the Great Raja Raja Chola... introducing Ponniyin Selvan!” Already, the makers have released the first look posters of Vikram as Aditya Karikalan, Karthi as Vanthiyathevan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as queen Nandini and Trisha as princess Kundavai from the film that is being made on a lavish scale.
The teaser of the film was launched on Friday evening, with a grand event set up in Chennai and live-streamed on YouTube. Lyca Production tweeted the release of the teaser video as well.
The film’s first part, which will release on September 30 this year, will release in five languages — Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. The film will be among the most expensive projects ever undertaken in the country with a reported budget of ₹500 crore. AR Rahman is composing music for the film. The movie is one of the highly anticipated movies of this year.
Based on the classic Tamil novel Ponniyin Selvan by eminent writer Kalki Krishnamurthy, the film will tell the story of the early days of prince Arulmozhi Varman, who later went on to be known as the great Raja Raja Chola.
Also to be noted was that the original poster was released with a typo in the character’s name. Instead of Arulmozhi Varman, the poster read ‘Arunmozhi’ Varman, causing quite the stir among the fans of the original book on which the film is based.