By: Mohnish Singh
Popular Tamil actor Chiyaan Vikram is presently busy promoting his upcoming film Ponniyin Selvan 2 where he plays the character of Aditha Karikalan. As the title aptly suggests, the film is the second part of Mani Ratnam’s historical war drama Ponniyin Selvan. But before Vikram played Aditha Karikalan in the epic historical drama on the silver screen, he was offered one of the lead roles in its televised version.
Yes, you read that absolutely right! Vikram himself revealed the same during the promotions of Ponniyin Selvan 2 recently. He said veteran actor Kamal Haasan approached him a couple of years ago with a TV series based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s novel Ponniyin Selvan.
“Kamal sir called me to his office and told me that he wants to produce Ponniyin Selvan,” Vikram said. “He wanted to do it for television. He told me, ‘I would like you to do a role… You can do whichever role you want.’ So, I was given the chance to do any of the three roles. I told him that I would read the books.”
However, Vikram did not want to do the show. “I got back to him and told him that I would wait for it to come to the big screen,” he said.
Years later, Mani Ratman approached Vikram to be a part of his magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan. The actor was quite surprised to know how people always had him in mind when they thought of adapting the book for the silver screen.
“The story was with MGR and when I went and asked, he gave it to me. And he told me to make the film immediately. I didn’t understand why back then. The novel came into the public domain. I felt very bad about that. I always thought about whether it will be me or Mani who will be making something like Ponniyin Selvan. I tried but I couldn’t make it. But Mani has had this dream all along,” he concluded.
Ponniyin Selvan 2 enters cinemas on 28 April 2023.
