The title role in Ponniyin Selvan, that of Arulmozhi Varman who later became Raja Raja Chozhan was to be played by either Suriya or Vikram. It was said that Vikram flew post haste to Mumbai to answer Mani Ratnam’s summons even though he was in the middle of shooting for the yet to be titled movie with Vijay. However, their talks fell apart because Vikram felt that his role was not juicy enough compared to the roles to be played by Vijay and Mahesh Babu.
In the meantime, Arya who had no such qualms and was dying to work with Mani Ratnam met him personally and asked to be part of the project. Mani assented and it looks like Arya will now have a role in Ponniyin Selvan. But will it be a title character or any of the other important male characters? Only time will tell.
