Aishwarya’s comeback with Mani Rathnam may roll soon

Director Mani Rathnam’s ambitious project Ponniyin Selvan, starring Aishwarya Rai as the female lead, may now be shot in one long schedule in order to make it to the theatres in 2021. The third shooting schedule was reportedly about to begin in Puducherry before lockdown. Two schedules of he film have been completed and Aishwarya has a long shoot in the film because she has a double role in it as well.

The makers of the film have confirmed that the shooting will take place in a single start to end finish after the Corona Virus scare has put them off gear, “Like everybody else in the industry, the makers have been waiting for the shoot to resume and talk to the actors about their dates. It will be difficult to coordinate the schedules of so many actors but the film’s production unit is under a great pressure to do so because they have set a deadline to try and release the film in 2021.

The film also stars south actors Vikram and Karthi and may be shot in Puducherry as well as a studio. The film marks Aishwarya and Mani’s union 10 years after their film Raavan, which also starred the actor’s husband Abhishek Bachchan and Vikram. In fact Aishwarya’s first film in her career – Iruvar - a Tamil film was also directed by Mani Rathnam.

Ponniyin Selvan is based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s period-based fictional novel of the same name and is being made in two parts. While Aishwarya is said to be playing a dual role in the film, the ensemble cast also includes Chiyaan Vikram, Trisha, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Sobhita Dhulipala and Aishwarya Lekshmi in significant roles.

Aishwarya Rai was last seen in the Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao starrer and Atul Manjrekar directed Fanney Khan in an extended cameo of sorts after playing a longer role in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil which also starred Ranbir Kapoor with Shah Rukh Khan pitching in with a guest appearance.

Aishwarya Rai had taken a break after her film Guzaarish in the year 2010and took five years before she was seen on screen again for the film Jazbaa by Sanjay Gupta. She played a lawyer in the film. She was seen the next year in the film Sarbjit where she had a wonderful role along with the talented actor Randeep Hooda. The same year saw her get into a commercial mode with the Karan Johar directed film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil followed by Fanney Khan in 2018

So, while is primarily a Tamil film like how Baahubali was a Telugu film – the Hindi dubbed version of the film is what a lot of her fans across the world will be waiting for.