CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2023: Mani Ratnam wins for Entertainment, says 'Surprised I was picked for the award'

At the ongoing CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2023 awards, filmmaker Mani Ratnam was awarded the Indian of the year under the Entertainment category. The prestigious award was presented to Ratnam by veteran writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar. The filmmaker thanked him in his speech and spoke about the challenges of making his two-part magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan.

Ratnam said Akhtar took writing to a structured height and lauded him for his contribution to cinema. He also has a request for the writer, he said, “Sir, we need you back in writing screenplay as it’ll help us a lot. These days when we are only talking about numbers, we need Javed saab.”

“What he said applies to him, not me,” says Mani Ratnam as Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) heaps praises on him while presenting him the #IndianOfTheYear (Entertainment) award

Watch #LIVE now | #IOTY #Entertainment #Awards #CNNNews18 | @Zakka_Jacob pic.twitter.com/VE7bZlFezE

— News18 (@CNNnews18) January 10, 2024

Talking about the award, the filmmaker said, “I was surprised when I was picked for this but a huge credit for this goes to Kalki Krishnamurthy who wrote the book and the Chola dynasty that has been unbelievably at its peak.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Ratnam spoke about the book and his film and revealed, “The magic of Kalki’s novel is this. It is set in an era a thousand years back. It was written nearly seventy years back. But it remains relevant even today. The politics, the power-play, human behaviour, sacrifices done for a the larger good, all are relevant. Maybe yesterday, helps us to understand today and leads us into tomorrow. Yes, I think it will be very relevant to the audience today.”

He added, “I remember reading it first during my school days. A huge five-part novel, close to two thousand pages written by a master story teller Kalki. In this work of exemplary mastery, history and fiction are interwoven with great ease. There are so many interesting details of the Chola dynasty, the rulers, their achievements, the historical details, but none of them seem force fitted. It is all there as a part of the narration.”