Aishwarya Lekshmi, who played the role of Poonguzhali in Ponniyin Selvan films, recently said that Indian textbooks and school education don't cover the history of indigenous empires of the country enough. She said that it is an effort to even acquire little details about Indian kings. The actor was quoted as saying, "From what I know, yes there has been some level of unfairness towards the indigenous empires of India. It would take a lot of research to get a little bit of information about them. Kalki's novel 'Ponniyin Selvan' (on which the Mani Ratnam magnum opus is based) is actually a window to the 10th century of southern India, how progressive we were at that time and how much chasing westernisation led us to go back in time." On the other hand, actor Karthi, who played the role of Vallavarayan Vandhiyathevan in the films, said that the syllabus needs a holistic coverage of Indian history and said that a panel of intellectuals must decide on what is the best history syllabus for school students. Recently, content on Islamic rulers suffered deep cuts in sweeping changes made to textbooks by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). This has sparked a heated debate in the country. Meanwhile, Ponniyin Selvan 2, which concludes the adaptation of the historical-fiction series by Kalki Krishnamurthy, has opened to an overwhelming response from the audience. It has already raked in Rs 100 crore from across the world in a matter of two days. Directed by Mani Ratnam, the story is a fictitious account of Raja Raja Cholan's ascent to the crown in the 1oth century.
