Ponnar Shankar (film)

Ponnar Shankar
File:Ponnarsankar-movie-poster-1.jpg Pre-production poster
Directed by	Thiagarajan
Screenplay by	Thiagarajan
Produced by	Thiagarajan
Starring	Prashanth Pooja Chopra Divya Parameshwaran Sneha
Cinematography	Shaji Kumar
Edited by	Don Max
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Production company	Lakshmi Shanthi Movies
Release date	April 2011
Country	Template:Film India
Language	Tamil

Ponnar Shankar is an upcoming Indian epic film adapted from a novel of the same name by M. Karunanidhi, a fictionalized retelling of the Ponnar Shankar epic. The film is directed by Thiagarajan and features his son Prashanth in lead dual roles as warrior princes, portraying the titular characters, with actresses Pooja Chopra and Divya Parameshwaran making their film debuts as princesses. The film also features an extensive cast of supporting actors with Napoleon, Prakash Raj, Jayaram, Sneha and Kushboo amongst others.

Discussions for the production of Ponnar Shankar had been ongoing since 2007 and filming started in August 2009. The film has progressed slowly due to the difficulty of fixing schedules to feature all the supporting cast together, and is expected to release in March 2011.

Cast

• Prashanth as Ponnar and Shankar
• Pooja Chopra
• Divya Parameshwaran
• Sneha as Arukkaani
• Prakash Raj
• Prabhu
• Jayaram
• Nassar
• Napoleon as Thalaiyoor Kaali
• Vijayakumar
• Vadivelu
• Bharat Dabholkar
• Kota Srinivasa Rao
• Riyaz Khan
• Kushboo as Thamarai Nachiar
• Lakshmi
• Ambika
• Seetha
• Geetha
• Manorama
• Sukumari
• Ponvannan
• Santhana Bharathi
• Delhi Ganesh
• Bhanu in a special appearance

Production

Development

In early 2007, Thiagarajan approached M. Karunanidhi with the intention of making a film on his adaptation of the Ponnar Shankar epic which he had written in the 1960s, and he accepted their offer and approved of Thiagarajan's decision to cast his son, Prashanth in the dual lead roles. In July 2008, the project became officially announced, with a press meet being held. The film subsequently began pre-production, with Thyagarajan opting to produce the film under his Sri Lakshmi Shanthi Films banner. The preliminary stages of the production took more than one year, with storyboarding, costume designs and colossal set designs all being finalized. Prashanth revealed that extensive research about the time period only was done for one-and-a-half years.

At the launch of the film in July 2009, Thiagarajan announced that thirty six prominent actors would play lead roles with hundred others portraying supporting roles. The female lead roles were initially offered to leading actresses with Aishwarya Rai and Deepika Padukone, being approached unsuccessfully, before Miss India 2009 Pooja Chopra and model Divya Parameshwaran were signed on to portray the leading roles soon after. Moreover, about 5000 junior artists and 1000 artists from the annual Chennai Sangamam had reportedly been part of the film's shoot. In 2008, Thiagarajan approached A. R. Rahman to compose the music for the film, however, he opted not to sign on, with Ilaiyaraaja eventually replacing him. Muthuraj was selected as the art director for the film and Shaji Kumar as cinematographer, while Prashanth handled all the visual effects related to the film.

The film ran into production trouble in mid 2010 and was close to being shelved, with sources reporting that Thiagarajan sold the film to Santiago Martin to revive the project. However reports proved to be untrue, and Thiagarajan maintained that he still remained producer of the film. The film had began to become more expensive than initially planned, due to the casual nature of shoot and the difficulty of creating contemporary sets. The film ran into more trouble in February 2011, when environmentalists thronged the sets campaigning against the cutting down of trees by the producers. The first look of the film was unveiled publicly in February 2011 and the publicity campaign began thereafter.

Filming

The launch and the first schedule of the venture was held on July 12, 2009, at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai, inside which an entire ancient township film set with temples, forts, a lake and palaces was created. Scenes containing Napolean as historical figure, Thalaiyoor Kaali, were shot there first. Thereafter, scenes featuring Jayaram and Kushboo were shot with the pair being portrayed in roles considerably younger than they are in real life. In September 2009, scenes were canned in forests in Polichalur with elephants and horses, resembling the region in the 1500s. Prashanth revealed that portraying a dual role meant that he was forced to change his costumes up to forty times a day in order portray the twin brothers' differences correctly.

Karunanidhi visited the sets of the film in a Vadapalani studio in April 2010, to monitor its progress and the shooting then moved onto Guindy National Park in Chennai where Prashanth celebrated his birthday on the sets of the film. Sneha was roped in to play Arukaani, sister of the warrior twins in June 2010, and subsequently filmed her portions. In late 2010, scenes with the lead cast with Pooja Chopra were shot in Trichy. The climax scenes of the film were shot in the deserts of Rajasthan in February 2011. The battle sequences were also shot in Kerala and Karnataka, with one scene lasting 28 days with 30000 junior artists used as soldiers along with 3000 horses; another battle scene was shot underwater.

Release

The film began its publicity campaign in February 2011 in aim of releasing the film during the period of the 2011 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly elections, with the film supposedly helping the campaign of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party who are led by the film's writer, M. Karunanidhi.

Controversy

Prior to release, the film drew criticism from the Kongu Nadu Munnetra Kazhagam (KMK) Party claiming that the film portrayed the traditional deities of the gounder community in a bad light. Leading figures from the party wrote to the central censor board to ban the film for portraying their deities, the characters of Ponnar and Shankar, to be "dancing with semi-nude women".

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack of the film was released on March 27, 2011 at the Prasad Lab Studios in Chennai, with the film's writer and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi being the chief guest at the event. The trailer and teasers were the film were also unveiled at the function, which was attended by several members of the cast and crew of the film.

Track-list

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Porulo Oviyamo"	Hariharan, Sriram Parthasarathy, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Mahalaxmi Iyer
2.	"Pennin Vadivame"	Vijay Yesudas, Karthik
3.	"Maanaada Mayilaada"	Shreya Ghoshal, Sadhana Sargam, Nithyashree Mahadevan
4.	"Por Thodangum"	Madhu Balakrishnan, Kovai Kamala

External links

• Official website