Director Maniratnam, who had last directed the multistarrer Chekka Chivantha Vaanam is next directing the ambitious big budget movie Ponniyin Selvan. This movie is the director's dream project and is the film version of Kalki Krishnamoorthy's famous novel of the same name.

Maniratnam had started shooting in Thailand last year, and had filmed scenes involving Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Jayaram and Aishwarya Lekshmi, and after the completion of the first schedule of the movie in Thailand, the team is next shooting in Pondicherry.

In this second schedule, scenes with Jayam Ravi will be shot and next, team Ponniyin Selvan will move to Hyderabad where special sets are being designed for the shoot. Ponniyin Selvan also stars Trisha, Vikram, Aishwarya Rai, Prabhu, Vikram Prabhu, Kishore, Lal, Ashwin and many others.