The magnificent effort by Mani Ratnam culminated in his trilingual film named ‘Raavanan’ in Tamil. The film was released amidst fanfare while the closely guarded storyline as well as the other facts that were kept a secret helped in building expectations. The movie came and went without creating a solitary ripple. The damp squib ‘Raavanan’ was however hailed with a host of awards including the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) award for Best Cinematography.

Since the time of the declaration of Mani Ratnam's 'Raavan', interest about how Bollywood's well known film producer manages to do a modern day adaptation of Ramayan, has known no bounds. Luckily, Ratnam achieved success in his own inimitable way. His group's hard work shows in every frame of the film and his actors help him raise the film's bar.

The movie opens with policemen killed at different places around Lal Maati, which is a small town in Northern India. This is accompanied by kidnap of the local police chief Dev's (Vikram) wife Raagini (Aishwarya Rai).

Mani Ratnam, who has been making films for almost three decades, sais that every time he starts working on a new film, he has to struggle to find the right way to can the shots.

Mani Ratnam's much-awaited Tamil flick Ravanaan, starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Vikram will hit US screens on June 18.

Big Pictures will release the film's Tamil and Telugu versions in more than 40 screens across 30 cities in the US comprising the self-owned BIG Cinemas' theatres.

In the Hindi version Raavan, Abhishek Bachchan is playing the lead role opposite Ash.

In the Telugu version, the film is named Villain, with Vikram and Prithviraj Sukumaran playing the lead characters with Aishwarya.

Raavan is the upcoming flick of ace writer, producer and director Mani Ratnam, who is celebrating his 54th birth anniversary today.

Raavan features Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram and Prithviraj in the leading role with a supporting cast of Prabhu Ganeshan, Karthik Muthuraman, Priyamani and Munna.

The film will hit screens on 18 June together with its Telegu Dubbed version "Villain".

Acclaiming Mani Ratnam as the leading innovators in modern Indian cinema, the Venice International Film Festival has decided to honor the director of "Raavan" with the 2010 Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award.

The award given in association with Swiss watch-maker Jaeger-LeCoultre awarded other major world filmproducers such as Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Agnes Varda and Sylvester Stallone in recent years.

The much-awaited movie, Mani Ratnam's Raavana will not be screened in the upcoming 11th India International Film Academy (IIFA) awards.

This announcement was made by Mani Ratnam as he strictly stood with his point that the event which is to happen in Sri Lanka will not get to see the movie.

The reason he gave was that the movie is not yet complete. He was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the inaugural event organized by NAAM, a voluntary organization.

Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai are playing the lead roles in the movie.

IIFA award has become the most prestigious award function in the Bollywood film fraternity. This has been a dream for all film makers to be awarded or to be a part of the function. But Mani Ratnam doesn't think so. A veteran film maker has said that he is not going to attend the IIFA awards this year.

Mani Ratnam is a renowned film maker of both the Hindi and South Indian movies. He is the maker of bag full of hallmark movies and a strong contender at almost every screen award.

Mani Ratnam’s ‘Raavana’ may not be screened during the IIFA awards as was previously decided.

The truth that IIFA will take place in Sri Lanka has caused a contention for the South Film association.

Because of the responsive situation that resulted because of the civil War most Tamil celebs and top personalities have decided to stay away from the award ceremonial occassion.

Ratnam also decided to cancel the screening of his upcoming flick ‘Raavana’ at the award ceremony after the Tamil film society dismissed invitations from the IIFA.

The relationship (purely professional, of course!) between Aishwarya Rai and Tamil director Mani Ratnam, is not new. It goes back to 1997, when Ash did her first movie with him.

Name of the movie was Iruvar and it created quite a ripple in the Tamil movie industry. At that time, Ash's dialogues were dubbed in Tamil by a professional since she was not very well-versed with the language.

Cut to 2010, and the story is quite different. Ash, the Holly-Bollywood actress and star is working with the same director for the movie- Raavana. And she is ready to dub the dialogues all by herself.

After the huge success of 'Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani', Bollywood chocolate boy Ranbir Kapoor is being considered by ace film producers.

Mani Ratnam is one of those considering the actor for his upcoming movie, as he is so impressed by Ranbir's acting talent.

Mani, who is presently busy with 'Raavana', is planning his next venture tentatively titled Azan, which will hit theatres by August 2010.

Azan is a pro-Muslim movie, which is said to be in the writing process.

Nothing is known about the female lead that will be seen romancing opposite Ranbir.

Bengali beauty Bipasha Basu has a reason to be upset as the actress was chucked out of Mani Ratnam’s upcoming film ‘Raavan’.

Earlier, the actress was offered to play the role of Abhishek Bachchan’s wife ‘Mandodari’ in the film. However, as per rumors in the industry, Bips is not doing the film anymore.

This all happened after Bips had her rehearsals, dress fitting and the allocation of 20 days of work in the film.

Hot and sizzling actress Bipasha Basu will now be seen in Mani Ratnam’s forthcoming film ‘Raavan’. She will play the role of Mandodari, Raavana's wife, opposite Junior Bachchan.

However, it is also said that Aishwarya Rai will play Sita’s role and Vikram will play as Rama in the film.

Even though, Raavan was married many times but Mandodari is said to be his favorite wife. She was Raavan’s well-wisher, but always disagreed with his misbehaviors.

These days, Mani Rathnam’s ‘Raavana’ has been hitting the headlines. Apart from the lancinating mishaps, Mani Rathnam’s casting of actors happens to be sensational.

Ace filmmaker Mani Rathnam has the knack of adapting the grandiloquent mythological stories. It was more illustrious with his yesteryear directorial ‘Thalapathy’ (featuring superstars Rajnikanth, Mammooty in lead roles) inspired from ‘Mahabharata’. And now the filmmaker has his ‘Raavana’- modernized version of ‘Ramayana’ rolling fast on the floors.

It is learnt from our unit sources that Mani Ratnam is fuming mad on the Mumbai tabloid reports that claimed he ordered a huge re-shoot of his film because he was unhappy with Abhishek Bachchan’s performance.

Certain reports also claimed that South star Vikram who is debuting with the film playing Aishwarya Rai’s hubby had overshadowed Abhishek in many sequences and the junior Bachchan after seeing the rushes requested Mani to have a re-shoot of them as well.

You need to lose some to win some, as the adage goes. And for Nikhil Dwivedi to win a role in none other than Mani Ratnam's film Ravana, he will have to lose his hair! Well, what we mean is, sources said that Mani Ratnam thought he might fit the role of Laxman in his prestigious venture Ravana. Nikhil was then asked to come down to Chennai for a look test.

Debutante filmmaker Don Goutham is all set to unleash his maiden venture RDX – The Movie. To be released in mid-May, RDX is the first ever Bollywood movie about the transformation of a woman into a human bomb and her successful come back to normal life. The inspirations for the same has been derived from real life incidents taken place post the infamous post Godhra riots. The makers of the film have done extensive research for their subject, including meeting and taking inputs from real life post Godhra riots victims.

There was a sudden panic among the myriad friends and well-wishers of the movie-making maverick Mani Ratnam when on Tuesday he was admitted into the Apollo hospital in Chennai.

Since Mani has a history of heart ailment, the worst was naturally ,or not so unnaturally , presumed.

However it seems the news from Chennai is heartening and very very encouraging.

So says the poetic genius Gulzar who , as luck would have it, was in Chennai working on a song for Mani Ratnam’s Raavan with Mani and composer A R Rahman when Mani’s health scare occurred.

Well-known film director Mani Ratnam was admitted to a private hospital early this morning after he complained of chest pain and giddiness.

Mani, who is in his early 50s, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Apollo hospital in Chennai.

According to the hospital sources Mani had a slight discomfort in the heart.

The doctors have decided to keep Mani in the ICU for the next one week for observation.

All the family members and close friends of the director rushed to hospital on hearing about his condition.

Gorgeous Aishwarya Rai is feeling anxious with her growing age and time. Few years back, Ash ruled the film industry completely and was known for her perfect beauty.

But at present she needs make up to give herself a young look.

Recently, Bachchan Bahu had an argument with Ace Bollywood director Mani Ratnam on the sets of ‘Raavan’.

The sources said that Ratnam asked Ash to apply no make-up for her appearance during the second half of the film ‘Raavan’ as she was supposed to portray a wife with feelings of being separated from her husband.