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 * Vikram
 * Amitabh Bachchan
 * Karthi
 * Jayam Ravi
 * Silambarasan
 * Vijay Sethupathi
 * Mohan Babu
 * Aadhi
 * Sathyaraj
 * Parthiban
 * Jayaram


 * Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
 * Anushka Shetty
 * Amala Paul
 * Keerthy Suresh
 * Nayanthara
 * Aishwarya Lakshmi


 * Jio Studios

1994
In an interview with Filmfare in January 1994, Mani Ratnam stated that adopting Kalki Krishnamurthy's historical novel Ponniyin Selvan was one of his "dream projects" that he had hoped to work on during his career. Ratnam revealed that he worked on a first draft of the film alongside actor-director Kamal Haasan, who had bought the rights of the novel, but the pair shelved their plan as the project did not make financial sense at the time.

2010
In late 2010, Mani Ratnam renewed his interest in the project and worked alongside writer Jeyamohan to finalise the script for the film adaptation of Ponniyin Selvan. Expected to be made in the Tamil and Telugu languages at a cost of ₹100 crore rupees, Mani Ratnam planned to produce the film himself initially, with the intention of teaming up with a bigger production house later on in the film-making process. Technicians including composer A. R. Rahman, cinematographer Santosh Sivan, editor A. Sreekar Prasad and art director Sabu Cyril were soon after attached to the project.

Mani Ratnam cast Vijay in the leading role of Arulmozhi Varman, who later becomes the Chola emperor Rajaraja I. After signing the film, Vijay called it a "privilege" and a "dream come true" to be working with Mani Ratnam for the first time. Mahesh Babu was cast in another leading role in the project, and also expressed his delight at being selected by Mani Ratnam. Arya also joined the project to play a third leading male role after the script was narrated to him. Meanwhile, Sathyaraj was signed to play a supporting role in the film. During the course of the casting process, Mani Ratnam had also considered other actors including Vikram, Suriya and Vishal but they eventually did not make the final cast. For the leading female roles, the team finalised Anushka Shetty for a role and held discussions with Priyanka Chopra in regard to another character.

Seven days before the scheduled start of the shoot, a photoshoot for the film was held in Chennai featuring Vijay and Mahesh Babu. For the shoot, the team sought permission from the officials of Mysore Palace and Lalitha Mahal to film sequences. However, their requests were denied with palace officials keen to keep film crews away from the historic locations. The film was later shelved before the start of the filming stage, as the expected cost of production escalated. Jeyamohan stated that the film did not materialise as the team struggled to find available locations to shoot the film. He revealed that temple officials in Tamil Nadu refused to allow the team to film scenes on the premises and that the expensive cost of producing replica sets meant that it would not be a viable solution.