Indian Express
Actor Trisha Krishnan will be seen playing the role of Princess Kundavai in Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan 1.
Filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan 1 will hit screens on September 30 and fans are excited to witness the cinematic adaptation of the popular novel. While the film boasts of a stellar cast including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Trisha Krishnan, Karthi, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Jayam Ravi and many others, to bring finesse into their characters, Ratnam had his ways. Recalling one such way, Trisha revealed that the director told her and Aishwarya Rai to not become good friends off-camera.
Trisha plays the role of Princess Kundavai and Aishwarya plays the role of queen Nandini. Both the characters in the story are arch rivals.
In a promotional video of PS1, Trisha said, “Working with Ash (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), I mean it is not an Aishwarya Rai and a Trisha Krishnan who’s there. It has to be a Nandini and a Kundavai. Mani sir said, ‘Dude, you guys can’t be friends. This is Nandini and Kundavai, so don’t talk too much. I need you guys to have a little bit of rivalry for my scene!”
Trisha, who made her acting debut in 2002 with Tamil film Mounam Pesiyadhe, has been part of several movies in two decades of her career. However, the actor says that she was pretty nervous on the first day of her shoot for Ponniyin Selvan 1.
“I was very nervous on day one, which is normally a very rare emotion for me to feel. And it was a scene with me in a court room with 10 other men. So that was basically Kundavai at her peak,“ says Trisha, who adds, “I can relate to Kundavai. She is very me. I am used to feeling empowered but unfortunately not all women get that. It was nice. It felt that this part of Kundavai was taking a little bit of Trisha and putting it in there.”
Ponniyin Selvan 1 revolves around the Chola dynasty and is based on the popular Tamil novel of the same name, written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. The film required Trisha to dress like a princess. While being part of a period movie was on her list for a long time, getting ready for the part came with its own challenges.
“It was very tough. I didn’t think it would be this challenging. We all had to wake up at three in the morning. Make-up would take like an hour and then another hour just for costumes and jewelry. We had Kishen Das, who did a great job with the jewelry and Eka (Lakhani) helped with fitting into the clothes,” shared Trisha.
