Mani Ratnam speaking at the Aravan audio launch said: "The most exciting cinema in India is Tamil cinema." He added Indian cinema is looking at Kollywood for inspiration and lauded the filmmakers and technicians for their innovative approach to cinema.

It surprised the gathering at the audio venue where UTV honcho Siddharth Roy Kapoor, leading Bollywood producer was present.

Later Siddharth himself said he endorses Mani Ratnam's views. The cynics in Tamil industry feel that Mani sir is making all these noises as he has burnt his fingers making Hindi films that never reached its target audiences.

Says a Tamil film historian : " The last film Mani Ratnam made set in Tamil milieu and which had a local flavour was Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), nearly a decade back. Since then he has been making bilinguals that tried to please the upmarket audiences."

Well now Mani Ratnam himself has come a full circle. He is all set to do a "pure Tamil love story" set against a fishing village in south Tamil Nadu with newcomers in the lead. Nobody in Indian cinema makes romantic movies with a universal appeal as good as Mani sir!