cast took place, with Trisha, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Vikram Prabhu were reportedly signed in the film. Characters The story thread of Ponniyin Selvan spans years and more than 50 characters, with 15 principal roles. The older version of Ratnam's film adaptation had Vijay playing Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan one of the two protagonists and Mahesh Babu playing the other protagonist role of Arulmozhivarman alias Rajaraja I alias Ponniyin Selvan, after whom the novel is named. After the project was revived, the roles went to Karthi and Jayam Ravi respectively. It was later reported that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will play dual roles in the film, as Nandini, the main antagonist of the novel, and her mute mother, queen Mandakini Devi. For his role as Azhwarkadiyan Nambi, Jayaram was sported a bald look in the film. Trisha would essay the role of Kundavai alias Illaiya Piratti. For the role of Poonguzhali, Aishwarya Lekshmi learnt rowing, as the character Poonguzhali is a boat woman in the novel. Post shooting being suspended due to lockdown, Trisha trained in horseriding at the Madras School of Equitation, where she was enrolled for a special course on 26 October 2020, and completed within 14 November 2020. Both Jayam Ravi and Karthi, confirmed their characters playing in the film. Filming Ponniyin Selvan was originally planned as a single film with a budget of 500 crore. Later, it was split into two parts that were to be shot back-to-back, with some sources reporting that budget of 500 crore is spread across two parts. Principal photography began on 11 December 2019 at Krabi, Kanchanaburi and other places in Thailand, where the crew planned its shooting schedule for 40 days. After completing the first schedule in January 2020, the team planned to shoot the second schedule in Chennai, but later moved to Puducherry. The second schedule of shooting took place on 3 February 2020 in Puducherry, and completed within six days. Then the team moved to Hyderabad for the next schedule, on 10 February, where the entire team planned to shoot at Ramoji Film City. The second schedule was wrapped up on 26 February 2020. It was reported that, Karthi faced an accident while he was shooting in Hyderabad, where he was thrown up in the air, while riding a horse, however he faced only minor injuries. As of March 2020, the makers shot the major portion of the film for 90 days