CHENNAI: Actor Prasanth and his director-dad Thiagarajan spent one-and-a-half years just on the research before kickstarting their magnum opus, ‘Ponnar Shankar’. And after four more years of shooting, the movie is now on the verge of post-production and will be released in March.
Legend has it that Ponnar and Shankar, two identical warrior brothers, lived many centuries ago and fought for their village. They are worshiped as ‘kaaval deyvams’ in the village Verappur and its surroundings even today.
The movie has been adapted from Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s much-acclaimed novel, ‘Ponnar Shankar’. The excitement of this ‘Chocolate’ hero is quite palpable when he talks about the ambitious project in which he plays the dual role — Ponnar and Shankar.
“It’s been a long-time sincean historical film has been done in Tamil. So when dad approached Kalaignar, he happily agreed and gave us a copy of the book he had written. Since then the movie started shaping up,” says the actor. Prasanth has already done different roles and his pony-tailed look in ‘Kalloori Vaasal’ and a woman’s role in ‘Aanazhagan’ have been much appreciated.
The actor adds, “‘Ponnar Shankar’ is not an ordinary script. It requires loads of input and research. Ponnar and Shankar were considered demigods. When Kalaignar wrote this novel for a weekly magazine, it was a page turner.”
So how would one differentiate Ponnar from Shankar on screen? “That you have to find out when the film releases,” grins the actor. The film has a huge star cast including two new heroines — Pooja Chopra and Divya Parameshwaran.
‘Ponnar Shankar’ is directed as well as produced by Thiagarajan.
“Dad has an indepth knowledge in movie making and I’m still learning from him,” says Prasanth. The battle sequence with more than 30,000 soldiers and 3,000 horses was shot by 15 different cameras at the same time and this is said to be one of the highlights. “The movie would be visually stupendous. We have done justice to Kalaignar,” assures Prasanth.