In Pics | 10 interesting facts about 'Ponniyin Selvan'

The second part of the much-awaited historical drama 'Ponniyin Selvan', helmed by celebrated filmmaker Mani Ratnam, was released worldwide today. The movie is an adaptation of author Kalki Krishnamurthy's 1955 Tamil novel. While the cine-goers celebrate the release of the second part, here we list some interesting facts about Lyca Subhaskaran's two-part epic.

Mani Ratnam's two-part ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ is an adaptation of author Kalki Krishnamurthy's 1955 Tamil novel. Credit: PTI Photo

After several hiccups, Mani Ratnam finally managed to achieve what several others couldn’t. He reportedly managed to make this magnum opus on his third attempt. Credit: Lyca Productions

Several superstars including MGR, Sivaji, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan tried to make this film and bring it to the silver screen but all their attempts were in vain. Credit: PTI Photo

Jayam Ravi lived like a king even at home for nearly six months to get into the character of Arulmozhivarman alias 'Ponniyin Selvan'. Credit: Special Arrangement

Actor Vikram, who plays Aditya Karikalan in 'Ponniyin Selvan', was the only actor to be approached by Mani Ratnam for the second time. Ratnam had reached out to Vikram for the same role in 2012 as well. Credit: Special Arrangement

Mani Ratnam had also approached Prince of Tollywood Mahesh Babu and Thalapathy Vijay to be part of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ to play the roles of Arulmozhivarman and Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan, respectively. Credit: Special Arrangement

Rajinikanth was so keen to be part of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ that he himself approached filmmaker Mani Ratnam to be a part of this historical drama and requested him to give him any role from the movie. Ratnam politely refused to cast him. Credit: Special Arrangement

It was the success of filmmaker S S Rajamouli’s ‘Baahubali’ which boosted Mani Ratnam’s confidence and he decided to bring Kalki’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ on big screen. While, 'Baabubali' took five years to get completed, Mani Ratnam finished 'Ponniyin Selvan' in just 150 days. Credit: Twitter/@Karthi_Offl

'Ponniyin Selvan' is regarded as one of the greatest novels of Tamil literature and is still a best-selling title. Credit: Special Arrangement

The movie chronicles the story of the early days of Arulmozhivarman (Jayam Ravi), one of the most powerful kings in the South, who went on to become the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I. Credit: Special Arrangement