Ponniyin Selvan I box office day 9 collection: Aishwarya Rai, Vikram film beats The Kashmir Files’ worldwide earnings

Mani Ratnam’s latest directorial Ponniyin Selvan I continues to maintain its rhythm at the box office. The period drama starring Aishwarya Rai, Vikram, Karthi, Trisha and Jayam Ravi has now crossed the lifetime collection of this year’s second highest grossing Hindi film, The Kashmir Files.

On Saturday, Ponniyin Selvan I registered a massive 60 percent jump. The day 9 nett collection of the film in India was in the range of ₹14-15 crore. It has now a gross worldwide collection of over ₹355 crore, which is higher than the gross worldwide collection of The Kashmir Files ( ₹340 crore).

Based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s 1955 historical fiction novel, Ponniyin Selvan-I chronicles the story of the early days of Arulmozhivarman (played by Jayam Ravi), a powerful king of the south who went on to become the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I. He is expected to get a bigger role in the second part.

Karthi plays a more prominent role of Vanthiyathevan, a brave and adventurous warrior in the film. Talking about it, he told PTI in an interview, “I’m a part of a very large film. I have all these lovely people for support. Normally in my films, I’m the only person facing the pressure, probably me and my director. But here we have more support to face this pressure. You feel all the more confident because you are getting launched by Mani sir in a film. So, I feel blessed that I’m getting introduced to a larger audience through this movie.”

The much-anticipated film opened to positive responses from both critics and audiences. Also backed by Allirajah Subaskaran’s banner Lyca Productions, Ponniyin Selvan-I released in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. Music maestro AR Rahman has provided the music with cinematography by Ravi Varman.