Ponnar Shankar (2011)

Interesting facts

Ponnar Shankar, also known as Kalaignarin Ponnar-Shankar, is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language historical action drama film produced and directed by Thiagarajan. It is a fictionalised account of the Ponnar Shankar epic, adapted from M. Karunanidhi's novel of the same name. It stars Thiagarajan's son Prashanth in lead dual roles as the titular warrior princes, with Jayaram featuring in an important role alongside debutantes Pooja Chopra and Divya Parameshwaran, and Prakash Raj as the main antagonist. The film also features an extensive cast of supporting actors with Prabhu, Khushbu Sundar, Sneha, Vijayakumar, Nassar, Rajkiran, Napoleon, and Ponvannan, amongst others.

Production

In early 2007, Thiagarajan approached M. Karunanidhi with the intention of making a film on his adaptation of the Ponnar Shankar epic that he had written in the late 1970s. The latter accepted Thiagarajan's offer and approved of his decision to cast his son, Prashanth, in the dual lead roles. In July 2008, the project was officially announced in a press meet.

At the launch of the film in July 2009, Thiagarajan announced that 36 prominent actors would play lead roles with a hundred others in supporting roles. The invitation cards for the launch had 3D holographic designs which won the Sappi awards of the year 2009. Aishwarya Rai and Deepika Padukone were initially considered for the female lead roles, before Miss India 2009 Pooja Chopra and Divya Parameshwaran accepted the roles.

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. The reports proved to be untrue, and Thiagarajan maintained that he was still the producer of the film. The film had also begun to surpass its budget, due to the casual nature of shooting and difficulties in creating historical sets.

Filming commenced on 12 July 2009 at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai, where an entire ancient township film set with temples, forts, a lake and palaces was created. Scenes containing actor and politician Napoleon as the historical figure Thalaiyoor Kaali were shot there first. Prashanth revealed that portraying a dual role meant that he had to change his costumes up to forty times a day to portray the twin brothers' differences correctly.

The climax scenes of the film were shot in the deserts of Rajasthan in February 2011. The final phase of filming was going on in the forests of Pollachi with elephants and horses resembling the region in the 1500s, when the production team couldn't make prompt payments to the onsite crew that consisted of more than 1000 members. The displeasure shown by the crew threatened to disrupt filming.

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