Director Radhakrishnan Parthiban shares screen space with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Mani Ratnam’s historical drama, Ponniyin Selvan. As the brother-in-law of one of Rai’s dual characters (Nandini), Parthiban plays the role of one who always warns his brother about his wife’s misdeeds. “I cannot express my joy. I worked with Aishwarya, and interacted with Amitabh sir,” he says, having connected with Bachchan at a curtain-raiser of the filmmaker’s Tamil movie, Iravin Nizhal (Shadow Of The Night) in September.

While his character may not be fond of that of Rai, off screen Parthiban developed a liking for her. “She’s beautiful, physically, but never takes her acting [skills] for granted. She doesn’t even waste a single minute on the sets — wears her makeup, mugs her dialogues, rehearses her facial expressions, and delivers them. She does not take retakes. Even though she [knows] she is beautiful, she believes it is not a big deal.”

Interestingly, Rai was so bowled over by Parthiban’s recent Tamil directorial venture, Otha Seruppu Size 7, that she recommended that husband Abhishek too, have a dekko. “Abhishek told me that he was interested in producing it under their banner. It is not easy to see one person on screen for over two hours and yet, he has taken the risk to produce it,” says Parthiban, who will return as director to helm the Hindi version of the two time National Award winning film.

Having found himself in the good books of the Bachchan couple, Parthiban is keen on making a place in Big B’s heart. “I hope that sir watches SSS7. Once, he had asked me to send the soundtrack of Iravin Nizhal. After that, he was part of the curtain raiser. I realised then how much he loves music.”

The filmmaker reunites with Ratnam, whom he has known for over three decades. “Earlier, Mani sir had offered me two bigger roles. But I was busy with direction. The third time, I said yes. For me, Mani sir is the greatest director in India. We have learnt a lot of things from this legend. For Ponniyin Selvan, he would shoot three scenes a day. That’s tremendous, considering this is a historical movie.”