Ponniyin Selvan


Ponniyin Selvan is a historical novel by Kalki Krishnamurthy, written in Tamil. In five volumes, or about 2210 pages, it tells the story of early days of Arulmozhivarman, who later became the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I. The book took more than three years to write; Kalki visited Sri Lanka three times to gather information for it.
Ponniyin Selvan is widely considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written in Tamil literature. It was first published as a series in the Kalki, a Tamil language magazine, during the 1950s and was later integrated into a novel. The craze for the series which was published weekly was such that it elevated the magazine circulation to reach a staggering figure of 71,366 copies – no mean achievement in a newly independent India.
Even today, the novel has a cult following and fan base among people of all generations. The book continues to be admired and garner critical acclaim for its tightly woven plot, vivid narration, the wit of the dialogue, and the way in which the power struggle and intrigues of the Chola empire were depicted.
A film and a separate web series adaptation of the Novel is in production and is directed by the renowned Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam.

Book volumes

Overview

Characters

In order of appearance
Other characters in the novel are:
Prequels and Sequels
Malarcholai Mangai is a prequel of Ponniyin Selvan written by Dr.L. Kailasam, which describes how Vandiyathevan, the hero of Ponniyin Selvan was brought up in his childhood to become a hero. Kaveri Mainthan written by Anusha Venkatesh and Nandipurathu Nayagai written by Vikraman are famous sequels of Ponniyin Selvan

Plot summary

Adaptations

Film

There have been several attempts to create film adaptations of Ponniyin Selvan, beginning with an attempt in 1958, M. G. Ramachandran announced Ponniyin Selvan, a film adaptation of the novel. Ramachandran bought the film rights to the novel for, and would produce, direct and star in the adaptation, which would feature an ensemble cast including Vyjayanthimala Bali, Gemini Ganesan, Padmini, Savitri, B. Saroja Devi, M. N. Rajam, T. S. Balaiah, M. N. Nambiar, O. A. K. Thevar and Chittor V. Nagaiah. Before shooting could begin, Ramachandran met with an accident, and the wound took six months to heal, Ramachandran was unable to continue with the film despite renewing the rights four years later.
A 32-hour animation film was created by Rewinda Movie Toons, a Chennai-based animation studio. The project was started in 2008 and took seven years to complete. The film is distributed over 15 DVDs and will be released direct-to-video by April 2015.

Upcoming film

Director Mani Ratnam also attempted to film a complete adaptation of the book for a 2012 release, but had to shelve the project due issues with the potential budget for the film and difficulty locating financiers to back the project.
In 2019, however, Mani Ratnam officially restarted production, and is expected to make it in two parts, with part one releasing in 2021. Ratnam's adaptation will feature an ensemble cast consisting of Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Parthiepan, Jayaram, Aishwarya Rai, Trisha, Aishwarya Rajesh, Vikram Prabhu, and Ashwin Kakumanu, with Prabhu and Aishwarya Lekshmi also having reportedly signed on as well, the film Ponniyin Selvan's principal photography began on 11 December 2019 and a poster was released on 2 January 2020.

Stage play

Avvai Shanmugam was the first to organise a conference on Tamil drama in Erode, and the first to organise a drama contest, in 1945.
One of the prize winning scripts was 'Raja Raja Chozhan,’ which was staged in 1955 with Shanmugam as prince Rajendra.
'Raja Raja Chozhan' was also presented at the Motilal Nehru Centenary celebrations in Delhi in 1961, earning compliments from Nehru for the splendid acting.
In Singapore, 'Raja Raja Chozhan' was also enacted 90 times. Overall it was staged 2,146 times.
Avvai Shanmugam played the role of Maamallan in Kalki's 'Sivakamiyin Sabatham' and the sets were grand, befitting the story. For the scene in which Paranjothi tames an elephant that runs amok, two men inside a specially made elephant, operated levers as they walked in unison.
In 1999 the book was adapted into a stage play by E. Kumaravel and was staged by Magic Lantern Theater in Buck's Theatre inside YMCA Nandanam, Chennai. The script's length was originally over nine hours long, but was shortened into a performance time of four hours and 20 minutes and featured 72 actors on a multi-level setting.
Again, the book was adapted into a stage play in a very grand scale by SS International Live along with Magic Lantern theatre group in Chennai, in June 2014. The crew includes Kumaravel, who penned the screenplay & dialogues, Thotta Tharani as art director, Preethi Athreya as costume designer and Bhanu leading the make-up and hair styling department. Pravin directed the play.
Chicago Tamil Sangam staged the play in May 2013 with over 40 volunteers in cast and crew.

Series

An attempt to turn the book into a television serial was made by Makkal TV, but was shelved. Another attempt to adapt the novel into a series by Soundarya Rajinikanth and Eros International surfaced in March 2015.

Upcoming web series

In 2019, a web series adaptation was announced, which would be co-produced by MX player and May 6 Entertainment with creative direction by Soundarya Rajinikanth and direction by Sooriyaprathap S.

Comic books

In 2017, Nila comics started releasing series of comic books where every comic book is an adaptation of two chapters from the novel. It is available in Tamil and English. As of January 2019, There have been 18 comic books released in Tamil and 10 in English.

English and other translations

There are at least five different translations of Ponniyin Selvan available in English by Indra Neelamegam, CV Karthik Narayanan, Varalotti Rengasamy, Sumeetha Manikandan and an ongoing one by Pavithra Srinivasan. On 21 February 2015, a Sanskrit translation by Rajalakshmi Srinivasan was released at a public function in Chennai.

English translations