It's not often that a director collaborating with a cinematographer makes news. If it is Mani Ratnam who we are talking about, the fanfare is palpable.

Even before clarity has come about his next movie, Mani signing up lensman Santosh Sivan (who is currently doing Mahesh Babu's 'SPYder') has become some sort of news. Why wouldn't it, when the visual poetry their collaboration is known to result in is there for everyone to see?

Earlier, the two worked on the movies 'Thalapathy', 'Roja', 'Iruvar', 'Uyire' ('Dil Se' in Hindi), and Raavanan ('Raavan' in Hindi). Santhosh won the National Award for Best Cinematography for his exemplar work in 'Iruvar' that released in 1997.

It's also being speculated that Ram Charan Teja and Aditi Rao Hydari will play the lead roles in this film though nothing about the star cast has been finalized yet. But if this is true, this film be Ram Charan's first film with the ace director and the second one for Aditi who made her debut in Tamil and Telugu film industry with Mani Ratnam's latest outing 'Kaatru Veliyidai' (Cheliya in Telugu).