IIFA 2024 EXCLUSIVE| Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on working with Mani Ratnam in ‘Ponniyin Selvan’: ‘I can’t even speak about his evolution as a filmmaker because…’

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan began her career with Iruvar in 1997 that was directed by Mani Ratnam. The duo then went on to collaborate for films like Guru, Raavan, Raavan, and most recently, the Ponniyin Selvan series that dominated the IIFA 2024 Utsavam.

Telling this exclusively to Firstpost, the actress spoke about her and Ratnam’s evolution as artists.

The actress told the portal, “I can’t even speak about his evolution as a maker because I have respected him. He’s my guru. So from the beginning, I just say I’m very grateful that I got to work with Mani Ratnam for my first film. Today we as a team get to enjoy the audience celebrating our film and how. I mean, 13 nominations. But having said that, I think it shouldn’t stop at 13.”

She added, “I’d cover everybody, every talent who has worked towards making for the installment. So that would go into 100. And each of them in my heart is nominated, and each of them is a winner because the audience has loved that piece of cinema. So thank you for your love. Thank you for your patience.”

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Produced by the visionary Mani Ratnam and Subaskaran Allirajah under Madras Talkies and Lyca Productions, this epic historical action drama has created a sensation as the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2022 and the third-highest-grossing Indian film of the year, with an impressive international debut.

Ponniyin Selvan’s powerhouse ensemble, including Vikram, Karthi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayaram, R. Sarathkumar were in attendance to celebrate the rich legacy of South Indian cinema honouring the finest talents from the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada film industries at IIFA Utsavam 2024 on 27th September, Friday.

Mani Ratnam’s dense and dazzling Ponniyin Selvan: I is hard to forget and comprehend quickly. Just like (almost) all of his previous works, it has the tendency to grow on you and immerse you in the complexities of the world the filmmaker creates. His cinema has thrived on shock, nobody can see that one surprise coming. Take for example Bombay (1995), based on the 1993 riots, the end is a happy one, bordering towards wish-fulfillment. The opposite happens three years later in Dil Se, his third film in the terror trilogy. Just when Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala embrace each other, everything explodes, both literally and metaphorically.