Lal learns horse-riding to play a warrior in Ponniyin Selvan

Actor-director Lal was in midst of shooting two big films in Tamil – Karthi’s

Sulthan

and Dhanush’s

Karnan

– and was set to join Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus

Ponniyin Selvan

, before the lockdown was announced.

Talking to us on how much his role in Prabhas’ big budget multi-lingual Saaho last year had factored in his casting in the Tamil movies, Lal says, “It’s not because of my performance in Saaho that I have got these opportunities. It might have helped that I was part of that movie but the film per se didn’t have an impact on the offers that came my way.”

Lal, who had acted in several Tamil movies such as Sandakozhi and Porkkalam earlier, says that he had been getting steady offers in Kollywood for over a decade now. “I have done many roles that weren’t noticed much and the films I couldn’t sign, went on to be big hits. But that was part of my learning curve and so I became selective in terms of the roles I accept,” he says. “In Karthi’s movie, my character is there throughout in a positive role. In Karnan too, my character is there from the start till the end and I allotted about 80 days of shoot for the movie.”

On his role in Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan, he says, “It’s a brilliant character and a physically strenuous role too. I play an aged warrior in the film and as part of it I had taken lessons in horse riding. I am yet to shoot for the movie. They had finished a schedule in Thailand. There were also portions in Europe and the desert sequences were set in Jaisalmer. I heard that they are planning to erect a massive set and shoot it there because of the pandemic, but I am not sure.”

Meanwhile, in Malayalam, Lal has co-directed Tsunami with his son Jean Paul Lal.