Mani Ratnam wanted to make a multi-starrer with Mahesh, Thalapathy Vijay, Nagarjuna and few Tamil actors. He cast them in different roles in a James Bond-esque spy thriller and then Ponniyin Selvan film. Nagarjuna was not cast in PS but he was for a spy film. He had to drop those ideas and go ahead with different films like OK Kanmani, Katru Veliyidai/Cheliyaa, Chekka Chevantha Vaanam/Nawab. Now, he took up the big film Ponniyin Selvan again and cast Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Trisha and many others.
What changed from the time he wanted to cast Mahesh and Vijay to this date? Well, Suhasini Mani Ratnam, his wife and popular actress, revealed that the technology was not as advanced as today when he first wanted to cast these big stars. He wanted to go for world class VFX and use different cameras, it seems. Now, the technology has improved and he is going with this cast. The film has been halted for now and it will re-start only after Covid-19 pandemic effects are nullified.