Why Aishwarya Rai, Trisha Krishnan were ‘scolded’ by Mani Ratnam for their ‘camaraderie’ on Ponniyin Selvan I set

Trisha Krishnan and Aishwarya Rai will share screen in Mani Ratnam’s ambitious historical drama Ponniyin Selvan: I, due to release this month. And while their characters in the film are at loggerheads, the two actors got along quite well, which posed some problem for the director. In a recent interview, Trisha revealed that the director had to ask them to be less friendly on set. Also read: Aishwarya Rai smiles as she waits for her shot on sets of Ponniyin Selvan

Ponniyin Selvan: I is based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s eponymous novel. The film also stars Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Aishwarya Lekshmi, and Sobhita Dhulipala. Aishwarya plays the antagonist Nandini while Trisha plays Chola princess Kundavai, and the two characters don’t see eye to eye.

In a recent interview to NDTV, Trisha Krishnan spoke about working with Aishwarya. “I fortunately got to meet her and interact with her on the day one of my shoot. She is beautiful inside and out, I don’t even need to say that. The thing is, this was challenging because we are not supposed to like each other too much in this film, but we got along pretty famously on set. There were times when Mani sir would come and say, ‘listen, you guys are taking too much, stop talking, I can’t have this camaraderie for my scene’,” she said.

The actor added that Aishwarya was lovely to work with and she surprised everyone with her command over the Tamil language. She said, “She is lovely to work with, and I’m sure everyone here and who’s worked with her would agree me that she is so warm and one of the most hardworking actors I have worked with. She spoke in chaste Tamil and how it has to be spoken. She will get up at 2 am and get ready with us. I am very honoured that I could share a screen space with her.”

Ponniyin Selvan: I will release on September 30 in Tamil, along with dubbed versions in Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam. Made on a grand budget, it is the first Tamil film to release in IMAX format.

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