Raavanan, Ravanan

Ace director Mani Ratnam presents a modern day version of the great Indian epic Ramayana in his much awaited film Raavanan. Vikram, Aishwarya Rai and Prithviraj play the lead roles in the film. Supporting cast of the film comprises of Prabhu Ganesan, Karthik Muthuraman, Priyamani and Munna.

Raavanan is rumoured to be a loose adaptation of Ramayana which tells the story of Rama, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravanan. The film will be told from the view point of Ravanan. It is also rumoured that Vikram's character named Veera is based on the life of the Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy.

While Aishwarya Rai plays a character inspired by Sita, Prithviraj enacts the role of Rama in this contemporary version of the epic. The supporting characters are also said to be inspired by the characters from Ramayana. While Karthik is reported to be the modern day version of Hanuman and Munna is Lakshman, National Film Award winning actress Priyamani is expected to play the role of Raavanan's sister Soorpanaka.

Raavanan is also made in Hindi as Raavan with Abhiskek Bachchan playing the title role. While Aishwarya Rai is retained in the role of Sita, Vikram plays the role of Rama in the Hindi version. Also the film will have a dubbed version in Telugu.

Raavanan is produced by Mani Ratnam himself under the banner of Madras Talkies. Music of the movie is composed by Academy Awards winner A. R. Rahman. V.Manikandan was the cinematographer during the initial portions of the film but after he left acclaimed cinematographer Santosh Sivan joined the film. Editing is by A. Sreekar Prasad.

Raavanan, jointly distributed by Madras Talkies and Big Cinemas is expected to hit the theaters on June 18, 2010.