Mani Ratnam’s epic historical action-adventure movie ‘Ponniyin Selvan 2’ aka ‘PS-2’ is running successfully in theatres. The magnum opus has already crossed Rs.260 crores at the box-office globally and has garnered positive reviews from the critics.
Despite the widespread critical acclaim that ‘PS-2’ is getting, there is one thing about the film that many fans are rather unhappy with. It’s the way Kalki Krishnamurthy’s intricately weaved five-volume book series has been adapted for the big screen.
For instance, an eminent Hollywood publication had recently written that the second ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ movie has packed a lot of story through its 2 hours & 45 minutes of running time. Which is understandable considering Mani Ratnam conceived it as a two-part film and not as a trilogy or a web series.
In fact, Mani Ratnam has himself said that even if he wanted to make ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ as a web series instead of a two-part movie, it wouldn’t have been possible because he wouldn’t get the dates from the stars involved with the project.
Now, let’s move straight to the point now. Is this the best time Kalki Krishnamurthy’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ book series be adapted into a web series format in an episodic narrative? And can a web series do more justice to the elaborate source material? Incidentally, many fans have recently expressed their willingness to see a ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ web series made for the small screen / OTT.
In our opinion, the idea of making a big budget multi-season ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ web series is the way to go. Especially after the audiences and critics have given a big thumbs up to Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ movies. And the most well-placed OTT platform which should take the plunge is none other than Amazon Prime Video, which already has epic shows like ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ and ‘The Wheel of Time’ under its portfolio.
Interestingly, filmmaker Soundarya Rajinikanth has been trying to put together a web series on ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ for the Indian streaming platform MX Player since the past few years. However, there hasn’t been any concrete update about the project for a while now.
Now that Amazon has reportedly purchased MX Player, there is a perfect opportunity for Amazon Prime Video to conceive a web series based on the revered ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ novels. Say, a five-season web series for the five volumes of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ featuring top actors. The source material deserves it!
But for the potential ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ web series project to take off in a big way on Amazon Prime Video, the writing and directing team should be very carefully selected. Our pick is ‘RRR’ director S.S. Rajamouli, who has previously expressed his keen interest to make a ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ web series because he also thinks that the web-series format is the perfect way to tell that story. And this looks like the perfect time to do that.
What’s your take on that? Would you want to see an OTT platform like Amazon Prime Video make a multi-season ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ Pan-India web series featuring your favourite stars?
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