Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan which released today tells the story of the early days of Arulmozhivarman, one of the most powerful kings in the south who went on to become the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I in the 10th century.

Ponniyin Selvan - I", is backed by Ratnam's production house Madras Talkies and Allirajah Subaskaran's banner Lyca Productions, is set to be released countrywide on Friday in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

Music maestro AR Rahman has provided the music with cinematography by Ravi Varman.

Ponniyin Selvan is a historical fiction novel written in Tamil by Kalki Krishnamurthy.

The Ponniyin Selvan was initially serialized in Kalki from 29th October 1950 to 16th May 1954. It was also released in book form of five parts in the year 1955. It has five volumes which indeed contains about 2,210 pages.

Check out the important characters from the novel and the actors who played them.

Arulmozhivarman is regarded as Ponniyin Selvan.

Ponniyin Selvan is considered by many people to be the greatest novel ever written in Tamil literature.

Ponniyin Selvan Movie Characters

Actors/Actresses Character Names

Karthi Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan

Jayam Ravi Arulmozhivarman aka Ponniyin Selvan aka Raja Raja Cholan

Vikram Aditya Karikalan

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Nandini

Trisha Kundavi aka Illaiya Piratti

Sobhita Dhulipala Vaanathi aka Kodumbalur Ilavarasi

Jayaram Azhwarkadiyan Nambi aka Thirumalaiappan