Mani Ratnam was asked about the likelihood of working again with Shah Rukh Khan on a future project. Mani Ratnam's Shah Rukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, and Preity Zinta blockbuster Dil Se is regarded as a masterpiece. Ratnam chuckles and says, “You should ask Shah Rukh. I should have a script ready for him, that’s when I can go to him. So it’s all a function of a script. We just met each other in a function, that’s all. Like I am telling you it’s driven by an idea of a script. Once you have an idea for which Shah Rukh will be right, then I’ll go and ask him.”
He is now preparing for the release of Ponniyin Selvan: I (PS 1), a forthcoming epic period action movie based on the 1955 book of the same name by Kalki Krishnamurthy. “I think for me it’s my dream. It's a film that I have always dreamt of, even before I got into films. When the first time I was reading the book, I looked at it as a big screen. I didn’t think that I would make it, but everything in it looked like it was meant for cinema”, Mani Ratnam said.
He goes on to say, “It has all the elements - it has adventure, it has intrigue, it has characters which are brilliant, and it has all the fun of a Alexandre Dumas film or a story. So I think it’s a dream that I was very happy to make and enjoyed every bit of it”. Poonnin Selvan Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Trisha, and Sobhita Dhulipala are the film's leading actors. In addition, it celebrates the 30th anniversary of Mani Ratnam and AR Rahman's partnership, which began with the 1992 Tamil romantic-thriller Roja.
