Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan-1 has created yet another history. It has entered the coveted 500-crore club. The movie was released on September 30, 2022, in five languages – Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi. Globally, it surpassed the 500-crore mark within 32 days of the release.
Interestingly, it is the second-highest Tamil film to hit this milestone after Rajanikanth’s 2.0.
The big budget PS1 was made spending Rs 500 crores. PS-1 grossed Rs 230 cr in Tamil Nadu. Overseas collection was around Rs 170 crore. Its domestic collection was close to Rs 335 crores.
An adaptation of Kalki Krishnamurthy’s epic novel, the movie narrates the story of the Chola Dynasty. It revolves around the life and time of Arunmozhi Varman, popularly known as Ponniyin Selvan. The film stars a stellar cast including Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha, Jayaram, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Sobhita Dhulipala.
The story of Ponniyin Selvan first appeared as a series in a magazine from 1950 to 1954. It turned out to be a great success. In the next year, the story got published as a book with five chapters spreading over 2000 pages.
Later, many including MGR and Kamal Haasan bagged the rights to make ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ a film. But, none of those projects took off owing to various reasons. Finally, Mani Ratnam, who earlier put this project on hold due to its massive budget, did the film.
Ponniyin Selvan is a two-part movie. As the first part was a roaring success, now, the audience is waiting for the second installment which is expected to hit the theatres on April 28, 2023. The makers announced the date during a recent thanksgiving meeting. They also donated Rs 1 crore to kalki krishnamurthy’s trust as a token of gratitude.
