HC dismisses case against film director Mani Ratnam

CHENNAI: Charles Alexander, a lawyer from Chennai urged Madras High court to take action on the complaint lodged to the Union government and Archaeological Survey of India, against film director Mani Ratnam for distorting history in the film 'Ponniyin Selvan'

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy heard the petition on Thursday. The petitioner mentioned that Mani Ratnam distorted the history in the 'Ponniyin Selvan' adapted from Kalki Krishnamurthy's novel. Further, the petitioner alleged that Mani Ratnam misused the name of the main character of the novel 'Vanthiyathevan' for his personal gain and sought action should be taken.

According to the petitioner director Mani Ratnam distorted history to insult the Cholas who excelled in the war tactics, proper research should have been done before making a film based on history.

After the submission, Judges questioned the petitioner whether he had read the 'Ponniyin Selvan' novel, to which he replied 'no' recording this submission the Judges dismissed the plea saying how can it be said that history is distorted without reading the novel. Judges further mentioned that the film is adopted only from the novel not from the history.