It has been two nights since the grand event of Ponniyin Selvan music/audio and trailer launch took place, and the Tamil cine audience is still reveling in the stories from the evening. Tamil twitter has not gotten enough of #PS1AudioLaunch and #PS1AudioTrailerLaunch trends, and hence we decided to curate some highlights from the memorable night.

It is worth mentioning here that Sun TV will soon be broadcasting the entire event as it took place for viewers to relive the star-studded gathering. Lyca Productions, producers of PS1 have also unveiled some high quality stills from the event. 

1. Descendance of Stars

Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1 aka PS1 boasts of some big names from the film industry and most of them were present at the event. The cast and crew guests alone constituted Mani Ratnam, AR Rahman, cinematographer Ravi Varman, 'Chiyaan' Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Shobita Dhulipala, Aishwarya Lekshmi, actor Rahman, R. Parthiepan, Sarathkumar, Jayaram, Nasser, Vikram Prabhu, Prabhu, Vijayakumar, Ashwin Kakumanu among others.

Other stars who graced the PS1 audio launch include Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, director Shankar, Gautham Menon, actor Siddharth, Kalidas Jayaram, Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Aishwarya Rajesh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Akshara Haasan, singer Dhee, director Mysskin among others. Composers Yuvan Shankar Raja and Santhosh Narayanan were also present and were part of the music performance that evening. 

What interested the netizens the most was how the event served as a reunion for these stars who had previously teamed up for Lyca (Rajinikanth-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan-Shankar) or Mani Ratnam (Siddharth- Trisha, Karthi-Aditi Rao Hydari)  before.  

2. AR Rahman Live

Composer AR Rahman's live performance was the crux of the event and everyone including the stars present were seen enjoying the numbers that were being played. Siddharth and Trisha attracted a lot of lens flashes when they started jamming to Yaakai Thiri from Aayutha Ezhuthu, which is one of the duo's iconic hits from 2004.  

3. Tamil Pride

• Thenandal Films producer Murali, who was at the event as a guest took the stage and requested the Tamil Nadu government to make a tax exemption for Ponniyin Selvan movies, since they amplify the Tamil culture and language. 

• PS1 writer Jeya Mohan echoed the amplifying part when he said, "No one in North knows about Cholas but they will once the film comes out. In Indonesia, Chola Chola song is being heard," 

• Music composer AR Rahman said, "Mani kidnapped me to Bali for research and composition of Ponniyin Selvan. I felt a few sounds were genuine and pure. Some of the tunes could have travelled from here.. 19th century Tamil sound can be created only by imagination. I took creative freedom and shared a tune. Mani came back after a month and was impressed.", reflecting the amount of effort taken in presenting the Tamil heritage to the world. 

• "Thamizhan endru sollada thalai nimirndhu nillada - there are multiple reasons why every Tamilian says this dialogue. There was a banking system 1000 years ago and most of Arunmozhi Varman's ideas are futuristic.. The 10th century civilisation is our pride and that's what Ponniyin Selvan encapsulates. Aditya Karikalan is my dream role." - Actor Vikram
  

4. Rajini-Kamal takeover 

Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan were special chief guests of PS1 audio / trailer launch. And they took the stage together and left the fans mesmerized with their stage presence.  Kamal Haasan revealed how he and his 'young Alwarpet-mate' Mani Ratnam [Mani Ratnam is married to Kamal Haasan's niece] dreamt of making Ponniyin Selvan into a movie. He said, 

"The story was with MGR and when I went and asked, he gave it to me and told me to make the film immediately. I didn't understand why back then. The novel (then) came to public domain. I felt very bad about that. I always thought whether it will be me or Mani (Ratnam) who will be make something like Ponniyin Selvan. I tried but couldn't. But Mani has had this dream all along. This film will be a success.."

Rajinikanth not only bombed the audience with interesting revealitions like Neelambari being inspired from Nandini or that late CM Jayalalithaa had wanted Rajini to play Vanthiyathevan (Karthi's character in PS1), he also shared an amusing tale of how Kamal Haasan fed him the secret of 'fooling' Mani Ratnam as an actor. Rajinikanth worked with Mani Ratnam in the 1991 film Thalapathi and speaking of the same he said, 

"It was tough to act in the film..Like stock shots, I had a set of stock expressions for being scared, for being in love, for being surprised, for being doubtful..when i gave those he (Mani Ratnam) didn't accept. None of my dialogue delivery was getting okayed. "You feel" was what he said and I was perplexed what feel..I was a case who knew only 'Start that vehicle, bash that man' (referring to his action movie dialogues)..I called Kamal (Haasan) from there and shared my agony of giving 10-12 takes for a single shot. 

Kamal laughed.. and told me to ask Mani to enact the scene and do it exactly the same. I would ask the director and listen to him while smoking and use this trick to ok the shot. This is how both Kamal and I have fooled Mani Ratnam.." 

Kamal also added, "When I got the rights of Ponniyin Selvan, Sivaji (Ganesan) also said that Rajinikanth would be perfect for Vandhiyathevan. I asked him 'what about me?', Sivaji said 'you be Aditha Karikalan'."

5. Mani Ratnam & Team

• “Pan-India is a term that's being used everywhere now. According to me, Mani Ratnam is the first pan-Indian director. His Roja (1992) laid the pan-Indian path for us to travel easily," - Director Shankar.

• "When people call us with the name of our characters, I think careers are going to change. I salute Kalki here..Kamal sir wanted to do this with Mani back in 1989. I thank Kamal sir for leaving something for us to do." - Karthi 

• "I kept thinking what did I do for getting this role..Then I realised.. It's simple. For the past 20 years, I woke up and went to work every day. I think if you do that for your work, things will happen," - Jayam Ravi

• "Karthi used to read the script well, but often got confused on which scene is being shot..One time I told him - 'you are the lead and everyone knows you are Mani Ratnam's favourite as you were his assistant director, so you go and ask him'. He then walked towards Jayam Ravi and Ravi responded with 'I don't know, don't ask me'. Karthi then finally walk towards the director and listened to him scolding his assistants that they were fools to not know which scene they were shooting the whole time. Karthi came back and said - 'Mani sir explained everything clearly' " - Jayaram  

• “My first thanks to Kalki. Next is Subaskaran (producer). When he asked me what I wanted to do after Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, I said I wanted to do Ponniyin Selvan. It took him less than 2 minutes to say 'let's do it'. He then asked me if it would be like Baahubali. I said no it won't be. He later asked if it would be like Padmaavat. I said no. Then he asked how will it be. I said I am planning to make like what Amarar Kalki had written with my own twist.” - Mani Ratnam