Fantastic that films now recognised as Indian, not from north or south: Mani Ratnam

Terming the popularity of south cinema in the Hindi belt “a return gift”, filmmaker Mani Ratnam says it’s fantastic that films are now recognised as Indian and not as works from the “north, or south or a Hindi film”.

Ratnam, who mostly works in Tamil but has also done movies in Hindi as well as in other languages, including Telugu and Malayalam, hopes audience classification based on language will disappear one day.

"For years, India has been making films in Hindi and they have travelled down south. Aradhana was a huge hit there and there have been several instances. It is only a return gift I think," the filmmaker told PTI, referring to the 1969 Rajesh Khanna-Sharmila Tagore Hindi hit.

"It's a fantastic sign that you can make a film in any language in India and it'll become an Indian film, not necessarily a north, south Indian film or a Hindi film. So I think it's good. I think people have become more open to it, and that will only increase the variety of films, variety of talent, and improve the overall standard of films," Ratnam said.

In his view, the pandemic, unfortunate and tragic as it was, triggered the cross-proliferation of languages in cinema.

"It brought films from different languages closer to all of us. Now, Malayalam films are seen all over. I think it's really a healthy time... in the sense that a lot more different kinds of filmmakers will be seen across the nation," the 66-year-old said.

Most known for Nayakan, Roja, Bombay, Mouna Ragam, Alaipayuthey, and O Kadhal Kanmani, he is now ready to release the second part of his magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan II, a dream project that took years to come to fruition.

He said he has a sense of "satisfaction and fulfillment" to have finally realised a long cherished dream with the two-part saga, an adaptation of author Kalki Krishnamurthy's hugely popular 1955 Tamil novels of the same name.

The movie, with a star-studded cast including Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Trisha, Shobhita Dhulipala, and Prakash Raj, chronicles the story of the early days of Arulmozhivarman (Jayam Ravi), one of the most powerful kings in the south who went on to become the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I.

The first part was released in September 2022 and the second part will be released in theatres worldwide on Friday in Tamil along with the dubbed versions in Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam.