Popular director Mani Ratnam gave a real surprise to the industry when he decided to rope in tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu in his next flick. He will be roped in for a bilingual in tamil and telugu. The flick will be based on the historical novel 'Ponniyin Selvan'. Mahesh will share the screen space with Vijay and Vikram. The flick will be shot in European locales according to sources. The female leads are yet to be finalised.