Ponniyin Selvan: Madras HC Dismisses PIL Seeking Action Against Director Mani Ratnam For Distorting Chola History

The Madras High Court has recently dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed against Director Mani Ratnam for allegedly depicting the wrong history of the Chola kingdom in his film Ponniyin Selvan: I.

According to advocate L.K. Charles Alexander, the director distorted the Chola dynasty’s history for commercial purposes and used the names of historical people in his film to “intentionally defame the history” “being preserved” by the Centre.

However, a bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy dismissed the petition, noting that the film was based on the novels written by Author Kalki and not on actual historical characters themselves.

The court also inquired as to whether the petitioner had read Kalki’s novel. To this, The petitioner responded in the negative. The court was shocked by the petitioner’s assertion that history had been distorted despite the fact that he had not read the novel.

The petitioner claimed that the government and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which are in charge of preserving and regulating the country’s archaeological activities and history, should have taken strict action against the director. According to the plea, they have failed to take any action against the director for “violating” the provisions of the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972 and the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

The petitioner argued that any distortion of history “degrades the integrity of the country,” and that he had made representations to the State government, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to probe the matter, but no action was taken.