Chennai 7th of September : Tamil superstar Rajinikanth has admitted that a letter written to late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to the reader of the newspaper was what made him intrigued in studying the Tamil classic Kalki’s ‘Ponniyin’ Selvan that has since been made into a movie by the director Mani Ratnam.Participating in the trailer and audio launch event of “Ponniyin Selvan: 1′, which was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night, Rajinikanth said: “‘Ponniyin Selvan’ is a story with three heroes.First is late writer Kalki.Next is producer Subashkaran and the third Mani Ratnam.
“Written 70 years ago the novel of epic proportions was so well-known that even when released in smaller portions by a fortnightly vernacular publication over five years, readers would have to wait for the magazine to come out.of five years readers would wait until the magazine be available in order to read the novel.The readership for the magazine was in line with the demand for tickets to the most popular film.This was the effect of the novel.”
The actor then explained how he was introduced to the novel.
“I have read lots of books.
However, I am in the habit of asking what number of pages a book is.If they say that the book is between 250-300 pages, I’ll read it.So when people told me about ‘Ponniyin Sevan I inquired what was the length of the book.’What pages? It’s an assortment of five volumes that run more than 2,000 pages’ they replied.I was stunned and thought this wasn’t suitable for me.” he said, inducing laughter from the crowd.
“However in the past, in the days of the ’90s the popular vernacular magazine had a “question and answer” segment titled “Government answers”.In this section the the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa would respond to questions from the public.
In one particular edition one reader had asked the former Chief Minister if she believed was the ideal actor to portray the role of Vanthiyathevan in Kalki’s classicfilm “Ponniyin Selvan” in the event that it was made into film.
“Jayalalithaa had replied, ‘Rajinikanth’.When I heard this, I was thrilled.I was eager to find out more about what this novel was all about, and pleaded for it to be sent to me.I began reading it.When I began to continue reading, I became overwhelmed.When I had finished I realized that if the writer who died Kalki had lived I would have gone to his house and kneeled before him for having written this amazing novel.” the actress said to thunderous applause from the crowd.
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