Do You Know Mahesh Was The First Choice For 'Ponniyin Selvan'?

Superstar Mahesh Babu working in a Mani Ratnam has been a dream for not just any regular cine-goer but also Mahesh himself. He said it a lot of times during his previous interviews. They both planned to team up several times but it did not materialize. It has been revealed that the legendary director planned to make his period drama 'Ponniyin Selvan' with Mahesh as the lead.

Apparently, superstar Mahesh Babu and thalapathy Vijay were initially selected to play the lead roles. Mahesh was supposed to play the role of Arunmozhi Varman which is the title role of 'Ponniyin Selvan'. Vijay was supposed to play the role Karthi did. But both heroes moved on with other projects when the film faced financial issues.

Both the heroes even did a photoshoot back in 2010 and even their looks were reportedly finalised. However, the excessive budget and limited VFX at that time stopped them from going forward. After a couple of years, Mani Ratnam began this film once again with Vikram, Karthi and Jayam Ravi as the male leads. At that time, many stated that Mahesh lost the role of a life time but it looks like it was the right decision now.

'Ponniyin Selvan' was narrated in two parts and it was made on a grand budget. But the two-part movie was so deeply rooted in Tamil culture that people from other regions couldn't connect to its story. Also, many found it tough to get a hold of the characters' names. There were complaints about the screenplay as well. Though the Tamil audience lapped it up, 'Ponniyin Selvan' which was considered a pan-Indian film never managed to reach the national audience.