The unit of director Mani Ratnam’s upcoming magnum opus, ‘Ponniyin Selvan 1’, has now released a sneak peek in to the movie, much to the delight of fans who are waiting with bated breath for the film to release on September 30.

The one minute 32 second long video clip released by the unit shows the Pandyas swearing an oath to wipe out the royal lineage of the Cholas in the presence of Goddess Kotravai.

A dialogue that a character utters indicates that the Pandyas have been defeated in battle and have retreated to the jungles.

“The brave Pandyas will wash your feet with Chola blood. The Pandyan kingdom is where the Pandyan Emperor lives. This forest is Madurai to us,” he says and adds, “Behold Amarabujanga Pandyan, son of Veera Pandiyan. He graces the Pandyan throne.”

The warriors then pledge their lives to Goddess Kali and to the Pandya flag and its emperor.

“For killing our beloved king Veera Pandyan, we will sever the head of Chola prince Aditha Karikalan. Death to his brother Arunmozhi Varman. Death to the chola Emperor Sundara Chozhar. We’ll offer their blood to Kottravai,” they swear.

The film is based on the classic Tamil novel ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ by eminent writer Kalki.

The film, called by Mani Ratnam as his dream project, is among the most expensive projects ever undertaken in the country.

It has the best in business handling each of its departments. A R Rahman has scored the music for this epic historical and cinematography is by Ravi Varman. National Award winning art director Thotta Tharani was in charge of production design while Mani Ratnam’s trusted editor Sreekar Prasad has handled its editing.

The upcoming Mani Ratnam film ‘Ponniyin Selvan-1’ spells royalty as it uses actual gold jewellery for its characters and was designed keeping in mind the small details of the Chola period.

The film, based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s 1955 novel of the same name, tells the story of the early days of Arulmozhivarman, who later became the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I.

Talking about the jewellery design of the film, the director of the film, Mani Ratnam said in a conversation with IANS: “We gave special emphasis to the costume to make them believable and lend the period-specific authenticity and still evoke that sense of royalty. We were very lucky to have Kishandas (the jewellery designer) on board with us and we worked with actual gold jewellery.”

He added: “The artisans worked around the small details of the Chola period and made the ornaments specific to the characters.”

Gold, though, tends to behave differently on camera given its radiance. So was there a lot of back and forth on the design? The director revealed: “It was not very difficult once we figured out the texture. It was more about the design that we focussed on as to what will be right for a particular character.”

‘Ponniyin Selvan: I’, which features an ensemble star cast of Vikram, Karthi, Trisha, Jayam Ravi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sobhita Dhulipala, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Prabhu, R. Sarathkumar, Vikram Prabhu, Jayaram, Prakash Raj, Rahman and R. Parthiban, is arriving in cinemas on September 30.

Tamil actor Karthi, who plays the pivotal character of Vanthiya Devan in Mani Ratnam’s much-awaited magnum opus, ‘Ponniyin Selvan’, says that the ace director has completed shooting both parts of the film in a matter of just 120 days.

Speaking at the launch of the first single, ‘Ponni Nadhi’, from the film, Karthi said the song is about a river. “All civilisations have started in rivers. Then, it was Ponni. Now, it is Cauvery. Every river has its own characteristics. Rivers have inspired poets. They have been a motivating force for even common people like us.

“When lots of people were saying that we cannot make a film on the scale of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’, we started. Then Covid struck. When we were perplexed, just like how a river knows to find its way to the sea, we knew Mani sir knew how to take this film to its logical end.

“We all went and stood with Mani sir and worked. In a matter of just 120 days, he completed both ‘Ponniyin Selvan 1’ and ‘Ponniyin Selvan 2’. It is not easy to make two films in 120 days.

“We would put our makeup at 2-2.30 a.m. There would be 30 people waiting ready to put makeup for us. Nobody would sleep. At 6.30 in the morning, we would take the first shot.

“Working on this film was like a dream. To make another film like this, a director would have to be born. Only Mani sir can do this.”