Mani Ratnam to prefer Ram Charan over Mahesh Babu?

Ram Charan, who had no luck with Shankar, may have a Godsend coming from another celebrated filmmaker with a pan-India reach, much like the 'Robot' and '2.0' director.  If Cherry missed out on working with Shankar, who was interested to rope him to reprise Aamir Khan's role in the remake of '3 Idiots', the Mega hero may well get lucky with Mani Ratnam.

It has been reported in the last few days that the ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’ (better known as the Karthi-starrer among Telugu audiences) craftsman is keen on reviving a project he had had in mind a few years ago.  And that this one will have Charan playing the lead role.  If this is true, the actor will have struck gold and got an opportunity to reach out to a larger audience.  The last time he made an earnest effort to go national (read 'Zanjeer', a 'Thoofan' of a flop), it turned out to be a damp squib.

Be that as it may, Mani has been thinking of making a film with Mahesh Babu for a few years now.  The film didn't fall in place because Mahesh admittedly expressed his inability to be a part of the project because of prior commitments.  The refrain then was that the project might well be revived any time.

So, which project is Mani going to revive first?  Is it Charan's or Mahesh's?  The jury is still out on this.