Mani Ratnam on comparisons between Ponniyin Selvan and Baahubali: ‘We wanted it to be nothing like SS Rajamouli film’

Though Ponniyin Selvan 1 was a great success and collected over Rs 400 crore at the box office, a few sections of the audience and critics had some issues with Mani Ratnam’s ambitious project. One such complaint against the film is that it didn’t have larger-than-life theatrical moments like Baahubali. The war sequences were criticised as underwhelming and lacking the impact of SS Rajamouli’s projects. However, Mani Ratnam in a recent interview said that he didn’t want Ponniyin Selvan to be anything like Baahubali.

In an interview with Cinema Express, Mani Ratnam was asked about the comparison between Ponniyin Selvan and SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali, and the ace Tamil director said, “We were very clear about it. Baahubali is Baahubali. Only Rajamouli can do it. When we started, we were clear that we didn’t want to do it like that. There is liberty there (Baahubali). There… the characters are fictional. They can be superheroes. Everything is imaginary. For me, Ponniyin Selvan is a book, written by Kalki. Arulmozhi Varman and Aditya Karikalan are real people. So, wanted to show them as realistically as possible.”

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He added, “If they say the war sequences are not like Baahubali, I am so happy. We wanted it to be not anything like Baahubali. I want to be inside the war rather than keeping it (the camera) from outside and showing something big… I have a problem with it because it looks digital. It looks false.”

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However, Mani Ratnam has also spoken highly of Baahubali and SS Rajamouli earlier stating that Ponniyin Selvan wouldn’t exist if Rajamouli hadn’t made Baahubali. He also admitted that he learnt a lot from Rajamouli concerning promoting a film.

The second and final part of Ponniyin Selvan 2 will be hitting the screens on Friday. It will conclude the five-part novel of Kalki Krishnamurthy and tell the ascent of Arulmozhi Varman to the throne of the Chola kingdom.