Mani Ratnam’s upcoming magnum opus production Navarasa, a nine part anthology series, is all set to be picked up by Netflix, as per some latest reports. Not long ago, reports emerged that Amazon Prime has joined hands with Ratnam in bankrolling the project. However, the series has changed hands and is said to have been lapped up by Netflix.
As per a report by Let’sOTT Global, due to some issue in the contractual agreement, the deal between Madras Talkies and Amazon Prime fell through. With Netflix on board as the streaming partner, the shoot of the project will commence soon.
This project will mark the directorial debut of actors Arvind Swami and Siddharth, who will direct one episode each apart from Gautham Menon, Bejoy Nambiar, Karthick Naren and KV Anand among others. It is still yet unknown if Rathnam will also direct one episode. There are also reports that Sudha Kongara and Ponram might come on board to direct an episode each.
Apparently, part of the income from the series will be given to workers of Tamil industry, who have been without work over the last few months due to the coronavirus pandemic. As per the casting, Suriya and Fahadh Faasil are likely to feature in two episodes. If Suriya comes on board, this will be his OTT debut. Vijay Sethupathi is also expected to be part of one of the episodes apart from Dulquer Salmaan and Parvathy.
Meanwhile, Mani Ratnam is raring to get back to the sets of his upcoming magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan, which is based on Kalki’s epic Tamil novel of the same name. The project went on the floors in Thailand last December where the first schedule was filmed for over 90 days. Actors Karthi, Jayam Ravi and Aishwarya Lekshmi took part in the first schedule.
The cast so far includes Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Vikram Prabhu, Amitabh Bachchan, Mohan Babu and Aishwarya Rai among others. Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who has already confirmed that she is part of the project, will be seen playing dual roles in the highly anticipated project, according to trusted sources. It has been learnt that the next schedule of the project will take place in Sri Lanka. The shooting is expected to resume from October.
The title poster of the film was released earlier this year in January. As per the poster, AR Rahman will compose music, Ravi Varman for cinematography, Sreekar Prasad for editing, Thota Tharani for production design and writer Jeyamohan for dialogues.
Sharing credits for the screenplay along with Mani Ratnam is Kumaravel. Eka Lakhani will take care of costumes while Vikram Gaikwad is in charge of the makeup. Brinda has been roped in for choreography while Sham Kaushal will take care of action direction. The film is being jointly produced by Mani Ratnam and Lyca Productions. Siva Ananth is the film’s executive producer.
(Content provided by Digital Native)